The source region and its characteristic of pulsating aurora based on the Reimei observations

Abstract

[1] Using image and particle data sets obtained from observations by the Reimei satellite, we carried out time-of-flight (TOF) analysis for 29 pulsating aurora events to understand the precise properties of pulsating auroras and the possible generation process. While the sources identified using a standard TOF model were distributed almost continuously from magnetic latitudes 50° to −20°, the sources identified using a different TOF model that takes into account whistler mode wave propagation were confined to the equatorial region up to about 15°. The latter source distribution agrees with previous statistical studies of whistler mode chorus waves. In addition, the cold plasma density of the source region and the wave frequency can be estimated from the latter TOF analysis. The estimated cold plasma densities and wave frequencies normalized by the equatorial cyclotron frequency ranged in 0.20–21.7 cm−3 and 0.22–0.65, respectively. The estimated wave frequency showed clear dependence on the invariant latitudes of the pulsating aurora source region and increased up to the frequency range of the upper band chorus as the distance from the Earth decreased (up to about 5–6 RE). These results suggest that both lower and upper band chorus wave contribute to the electron scattering of pulsating auroras, which depends on the radial distance of the source region.