Temporal and spatial changes of polar substorms and infrasonic wave emissions

Abstract

By use of auroral infrasonic wave (AIW) records observed at the Syowa station, Antarctica, the relations between the AIW emissions and the auroral substorms were studied separately in the cases of emissions in the dusk, dawn and midnight. For this purpose, contour maps of the horizontal magnetic vectors at the time of AIW emissions were compared with the equivalent current systems. The followings are found. The existence of substorm activity is always found at the time of AIW emissions, but its strength has only minor relations to their occurrence. The condition for the occurrence of the emission depends largely on the manner how the disturbed region moves. The AIWs are emitted when the disturbed region moves with a supersonic speed and the trace direction of the wave roughly coincides with the direction of the traveling disturbance. While the morning and the evening AIWs are emitted from the rear region of the traveling disturbance, the midnight one from the front region. The AIW emissions tend to synchronize with the overhead crossing of the electrojet current and at that time the current causes the rotational change in the horizontal magnetic vectors on the ground.