Relations between proton auroras, intense electric field, and ionospheric electron density depletion

Abstract

A case study with simultaneous European Incoherent Scatter and optical auroral observations was conducted in order to determine characteristics of the magnetosphere‐ionosphere coupling from the viewpoint of the electrodynamics in the ionosphere. Particularly focused on were the relationships between ionospheric electron density depletion, perpendicular electric fields, and proton auroras. Intense electron density depletion was observed in the E and F regions poleward and in the vicinity of a thin equatorward moving arc. This depletion was associated with an intense, equatorward perpendicular electric field close to ∼80 mV/m and most likely with a downward field‐aligned current (FAC), but it did not accompany detectable proton aurora. Hence the downward FA electric field in the lower magnetosphere associated with this depletion was weak or absent. The motion of the FAC system with the depletion and the arc presumably enabled the downward FAC to obtain enough current carriers as ionospheric electrons were lost by the evacuation process. The evacuation process associated with the downward FAC was, however, efficient enough to establish the depletion. On the other hand, a widely distributed proton aurora observed immediately after the depletion was associated with an intense, equatorward perpendicular electric field close to 90 mV/m, enhanced electron density, and most likely a downward FAC. No electron precipitation was associated with this proton aurora. Thus the electron density enhancement, providing the downward current carriers, had to be caused by the ionization of precipitating protons presumably accelerated by downward field‐aligned electric fields in the lower magnetosphere.