Auroral Phenomena Research Articles

Kristian Birkeland's pioneering investigations of geomagnetic disturbances

Abstract. More than 100 years ago Kristian Birkeland (1967–1917) addressed questions that had vexed scientists for centuries. Why do auroras appear overhead while the Earth's magnetic field is disturbed? Are magnetic storms on Earth related to disturbances on the Sun? To answer these questions Birkeland devised terrella simulations, led coordinated campaigns in the Arctic wilderness, and then interpreted his results in the light of Maxwell's synthesis of laws governing electricity and magnetism. After analyzing thousands of magnetograms, he divided disturbances into 3 categories: 1. Polar elementary storms are auroral-latitude disturbances now called substorms. 2. Equatorial perturbations correspond to initial and main phases of magnetic storms. 3. Cyclo-median perturbations reflect enhanced solar-quiet currents on the dayside. He published the first two-cell pattern of electric currents in Earth's upper atmosphere, nearly 30 years before the ionosphere was identified as a separate entity. Birkeland's most enduring contribution toward understanding geomagnetic disturbances flowed from his recognition that field-aligned currents must connect the upper atmosphere with generators in distant space. The existence of field-aligned currents was vigorously debated among scientists for more than 50 years. Birkeland's conjecture profoundly affects present-day understanding of auroral phenomena and global electrodynamics. In 1896, four years after Lord Kelvin rejected suggestions that matter passes between the Sun and Earth, and two years before the electron was discovered, Birkeland proposed current carriers are "electric corpuscles from the Sun" and "the auroras are formed by corpuscular rays drawn in from space, and coming from the Sun". It can be reasonably argued that the year 1896 marks the founding of space plasma physics. Many of Birkeland's insights were rooted in observations made during his terrella experiments, the first attempts to simulate cosmic phenomena within a laboratory. Birkeland's ideas were often misinterpreted or dismissed, but were verified when technology advances allowed instrumented spacecraft to fly in space above the ionosphere.

Auroral and sub-auroral phenomena: an electrostatic picture

Abstract. Many auroral and sub-auroral phenomena are manifestations of an underlying magnetosphere-ionosphere coupling. In the electrostatic perspective the associated auroral current circuit describes how the generator (often in the magnetosphere) is connected to the load (often in the ionosphere) through field-aligned currents. The present paper examines the generic properties of the current continuity equation that characterizes the auroral circuit. The physical role of the various elements of the current circuit is illustrated by considering a number of magnetospheric configurations, various auroral current-voltage relations, and different types of behaviour of the ionospheric conductivity. Based on realistic assumptions concerning the current-voltage relation and the ionospheric conductivity, a comprehensive picture of auroral and sub-auroral phenomena is presented, including diffuse aurora, discrete auroral arcs, black aurora, and subauroral ion drift. The electrostatic picture of field-aligned potential differences, field-aligned currents, ionospheric electric fields and plasma drift, and spatial scales for all these phenomena is in qualitative agreement with observations.

Kristian Birkeland: The first space scientist

More than one hundred years ago Kristian Birkeland (1867–1917) first addressed the question as to why auroras appear overhead when the Earth's magnetic field is disturbed. He laid foundations for our current understanding of geomagnetism and polar auroras. For the first time cosmic phenomena were scaled and simulated in a laboratory. Birkeland's terrella experiments were ingenious. Even though the famous Lord Kelvin, in 1892, wrote that no matter passes between the Sun and the Earth, Birkeland's first auroral theory from 1896 is based on charged particle of solar origin, illustrated by the following quotation: “the auroras are formed by corpuscular rays drawn in from space, and coming from the sun”. Thus, the year 1896 marks the founding of space plasma physics. His most enduring contribution to auroral physics was his recognition that field-aligned currents are needed to couple auroral phenomena in the upper atmosphere to interplanetary space. The existence of field-aligned currents was controversial and disputed vigorously among scientists for more than 50 years. During The Birkeland Symposium in 1967 it was unanimously proposed that field-aligned currents in space should be called “Birkeland currents”, which was accepted by the International Union for Geomagnetism and Aeronomy. Today, plasma physicists strongly believe that many significant cosmic phenomena result from streams of Birkeland currents.

Timing and location of substorm onsets from THEMIS satellite and ground based observations

Abstract. The unprecedented coverage of the THEMIS GBO station network coupled with high temporal and spatial resolution allowed us to determine the various stages of the global scale developments of the optical aurora at substorm onsets. We identified several steps of the substorm onset auroral phenomena and we suggest that the most rapid development is the starting of the Substorm Poleward Expansion (SPE) and it is most useful for accurate timing of the substorm onset. The physical significance of this step is the start of the large scale substorm energy dissipation in the atmosphere due to particle precipitation and auroral electrojet currents. We also recognized several pre-cursor features. We also measured the time of arrival of magnetic impulses associated with the same substorms at the THEMIS satellites. We used these times and a simple model with assumed iono-acoustic speeds in the range of 300–800 km/s to calculate the location and time of the origin of the magnetic impulses propagating from substorm onset. The assumption was made that the substorm occurred between two THEMIS satellites and the impulses propagated away from a singular starting point in and out along the magneto tail GSM-x axis. This technique is only useful in cases where the ground based signature of the substorm is very close in local time (or longitude) to the foot of the field lines of the THEMIS satellites. The x distance of the calculated origins were naturally highly dependent on the assumed propagation velocity model and the associated magneto-sonic speed. The resulting x distances of the starting point for the three events ranged between 11 and 17.6 RE. denoting a starting region that requires highly stretched field lines to map to the auroral onset latitude but which is generally considered to be too close for neutral line formation. The corresponding start times were in the range of 0 to 170 s prior SPE depending strongly on the assumed propagation speed.

International Polar Research and Space Weather

The fiftieth anniversary of the International Geophysical Year (IGY), currently celebrated in the 2007–2009 International Polar Year (IPY), highlights space weather's heritage from polar research. The polar regions were still very much “terra incognito” 50 years ago. At the same time, communications technologies had significantly advanced since the time of the second IPY, in 1932–1933. Yet even before the second IPY, several directors of international meteorological services stated in a 1928 resolution that “increased knowledge [of the polar regions] will be of practical application to problems connected with terrestrial magnetism, marine and aerial navigation, wireless telegraphy and weather forecasting” (see http://scaa.usask.ca/gallery/northern/currie/en_polaryear.shtml). Despite this hoped-for increase in knowledge, the second IPY's contributions to early space weather research were limited by technology. Not so with the IGY 25 years later. During the 1957–1958 IGY, an ionosonde was deployed at South Pole Station specifically to determine if an ionosphere existed during the long winter darkness. According to NASA scientist Robert Benson, who spent that first-ever winter at South Pole, the overwinter crew did not know if they would be able to communicate by radio during their sojourn. Fortunately, the ionosonde revealed an ionosphere, albeit different from under lower-latitude nighttime ionospheres, and the South Pole explorers were able to communicate by radio techniques with the outside world. Indeed, the overlying ionosphere and its temporal variations—significantly influenced by considerable solar activity during the IGY (coincident with the maximum in the nineteenth solar cycle)—resulted in fascinating new scientific knowledge on such subjects as solar energetic particle access to the polar regions and very high latitude auroral phenomena that would later become critical for practical applications. Other space weather–measuring instruments at South Pole during the IGY included a magnetometer, auroral camera, and photometer, predecessors to much more advanced instrumentation that is taking data during the current IPY. Polar research important for space weather applications has changed dramatically since the IGY. Today, measurement sites are distributed across the Antarctic continent, as well as on Northern Hemisphere land sites. Many locations in both hemispheres are remote and unmanned. The data from many of these locations are used today for space weather forecasting and prediction, and in models of the space weather environment. In the future, more remote and unmanned polar sites will be established as power systems using solar and wind technologies become more robust and as instrument power demands decrease with advances in electronics. The IGY provided the opportunity to extend space weather research and applications to the polar regions. In the five decades since, the need for this understanding has become more important as passenger and commercial transport across the north polar regions increases and as the number of participants and countries involved in Antarctic research grows each year. As future research progresses, we would do well to remember our roots. Louis J. Lanzerotti is editor of Space Weather and a distinguished research professor at the New Jersey Institute of Technology.

An Editorial Conundrum

Interdisciplinarity is to be welcomed as a way of overcoming the limitations of narrow specialization and the blinders that inevitably follow from immersion in a particular discipline's worldview. To that end, the Journal of Folklore Research explicitly welcomes submissions from scholars in related fields, as our stated mission is to provide international forum for current theory and research among scholars of folklore and related fields. This goal carries a pair of demands: first, that folklorists must remain open to approaches from other disciplines; second, that folklorists think hard about how they can best convey their work so that scholars in other fields will take heed (a task that may include making explicit our own disciplinary assumptions). An article that appears in the current issue, Ouroboros as an Auroral Phenomenon, presented an interesting challenge to your editors and especially to our commitment to interdisciplinary research. In this article, Marinus Anthony van der Sluijs and Anthony L. Peratt draw upon research in plasma physics and astronomy to present a novel hypothesis for the motif of the cosmic worm ouroboros, who constantly eats his own tail and is related to the Midgard Serpent (motif A876) and Leviathan (A876.1). This mythic motif is both ancient and widespread across the world, and the authors seek to answer one of the oldest questions that has plagued folklorists, namely, how does the same motif come to be found in such widely scattered places? Since the paper drew upon both comparative mythology and astronomy/physics, we sent the paper out for review to both folklorists and scientists. The folklorists considered the topic interesting and the treatment of comparative data valuable; these concerns form the bulk of the article. Regarding Van der Sluijs and Peratt's concluding arguments about the origin of the ouroboros image, the folklorists disclaimed knowledge of the science but were intrigued by resonances with, if not resurgences of, nineteenth-century themes in comparative myth study:

TheOurobórosas an Auroral Phenomenon

This article traces the spread and development of the motif of the ouroboros , or circular serpent, and proposes that it originated in descriptions of an intense aurora. The earliest artistic examples of the ouroboros date to ±5000–±3000 BCE. The theme proliferated in Egypt and spread to the classical world during the Hellenistic period. In the earliest traditions, emphasis was on the ouroboros' associations with the sun god, the creation of the world, the circular ocean, darkness or underworld thought to surround the earth, and a mythical combat. From late antiquity onwards, the ouroboros acquired more sophisticated meanings, including a link with the ecliptic band or the zodiac, the lunar nodes, the alchemical process, and eternity. In China, the ouroboros largely remained a purely decorative motif, while its most common role in the equatorial regions of America, Africa and Oceania was as a form of the cosmic ocean. In reviewing hypotheses concerning the origin of the motif, we consider the antiquity of the theme, its near-universality, its geographic link with the outermost boundary of the visible world, and aspects of the dragon's prosopography—such as its precious orb, its filamentation, its twin aspect, and its radiant color scheme. It is proposed that the archetype was inspired by a surge of intense auroral phenomena including a plasma instability type known as a diocotron instability, witnessed by human beings towards the end of the Neolithic period.

Modeling of the Jovian Auroral Environment and Its Effects on Spacecraft Charging

A well-known concern for polar orbiting spacecraft at the Earth is spacecraft charging due to the aurora. Studies of Jupiter reveal the presence of a variety of similar auroral phenomena. In particular, three regions have been identified-a narrow auroral zone at high latitudes, a complex and variable environment over the poles, and auroralike features associated with the main jovian moons and their magnetic flux tubes. These auroral structures are, like their earthly counterparts, expected to be sources of charging. This paper reviews the observational data and models of the jovian aurora zone and polar regions. In combination with models of the jovian plasma environment, the ambient charging currents are then computed with the intention of providing realistic estimates of spacecraft potentials at Jupiter. These are of particular importance to the Juno mission as it is a Jupiter polar orbiter and will pass through the jovian auroral zones near the planet. Of special concern, unlike previous missions to Jupiter, Juno will utilize large solar arrays. While previous missions (e.g., the Voyagers and Galileo) utilized RTGs and were carefully designed to avoid differential surface charging, the Juno mission's solar arrays may make it more sensitive to surface charging. Although the jovian aurora is a possibly serious threat to Juno and similar missions, as will be discussed, an understanding of the environment and proper mitigation techniques should limit their effects.

Auroral radio emission and absorption of medium frequency radio waves observed in Iceland

Abstract In order to study the generation and propagation processes of MF auroral radio emissions (referred to as auroral roar and MF burst) in the polar ionosphere, an Auroral Radio Spectrograph (ARS) system was installed at Husafell station in Iceland (invariant latitude: 65.3°). Data analysis of man-made transmissions also provides useful information for the ionosphere study as well as an investigation of auroral radio emissions since the propagation character of MF radio waves changes depending on electron-neutral collisions in the bottomside ionosphere. Thus, ionospheric absorption is examined in comparison with the solar zenith angle and auroral phenomena. The results indicate that the ARS data can be used to detect ionization occurring at distant regions. In late 2006, the ARS detected one auroral roar and twoMF bursts, which were identified as left-handed polarized waves. Results of data analysis, including other auroral data and particle spectra observed by the DMSP satellite, suggest that the MF bursts are generated by electrons with an average energy of several keV associated with auroral breakup. On the other hand, the auroral roar is generated as upper hybrid waves by relatively low-energy electrons over the observation site and propagates downward, being converted into L-O mode electromagnetic waves.

Poleward moving auroral forms (PMAFs) revisited: responses of aurorae, plasma convection and Birkeland currents in the pre- and postnoon sectors under positive and negative IMF <I>B<sub>y</sub></I> conditions

Abstract. Using five case studies, we investigate the dynamical evolution of dayside auroral precipitation in relation to plasma convection, classifying it by the IMF By component and position with respect to noon. Auroral observations were made by meridian scanning photometers (MSPs) and an all-sky camera (ASC) in Ny Ålesund, Svalbard at 76° MLAT, while the spatial structure of the ionospheric plasma convection is inferred from SuperDARN radars and ion drift observations from spacecraft in polar orbit. The IMF configuration of major interest here is one pointing southward and with a dominant east-west component. Our emphasis is on the auroral phenomenon of PMAFs (poleward moving auroral forms), which are ionospheric signatures of pulsed reconnection at the magnetopause. We distinguish between PMAFs/prenoon and PMAFs/postnoon. These two activities are found to be separated by an auroral form around noon with attenuated emission at 630.0 nm. We document for the first time that this "midday gap aurora" appears in the form of a midday auroral brightening sequence (MABS). We study the PMAF activity consisting of an initial brightening phase and the later stages of PMAF evolution in relation to plasma convection cells, flow vorticity, and precipitation boundaries in the prenoon and postnoon sectors for both By polarities. Flow channels (PIFs) associated with PMAFs are strengthened by polarization effects at auroral boundaries. Addressing the implications of our proposed, extended perspective on dayside auroral morphology under southeast/west IMF for M-I coupling associated with pulsed magnetopause reconnection (FTEs), we draw inferences on the MLT-dependent geoeffectiveness (Birkeland current/auroral intensity) of magnetopause FTEs (subsolar region versus flanks).

The first accurate description of an aurora

As technology has advanced, the scientific study of auroral phenomena has increased by leaps and bounds. A look back at the earliest descriptions of aurorae offers an interesting look into how medieval scholars viewed the subjects that we study.Although there are earlier fragmentary references in the literature, the first accurate description of the aurora borealis appears to be that published by the German Catholic scholar Konrad von Megenberg (1309–1374) in his book Das Buch der Natur (The Book of Nature). The book was written between 1349 and 1350.

Nature of Pi1B pulsations as inferred from ground and satellite observations

The occurrence of Pi1B pulsations is well‐documented, including the fact that these pulsations can be observed both on the ground and at geosynchronous orbit at substorm onset, although information about their propagation characteristics has been lacking. In this paper, data are presented from FAST, GOES 9 and various ground stations that show the simultaneous observations of Pi1B pulsations in association with an onset. While the data at GOES 9 show that the pulsations are compressional in nature, data from FAST show the presence of shear mode waves, implying that Pi1B mode conversion of some type must take place in the region between geosynchronous orbit and FAST altitudes. An additional point is that Pi1B pulsations apparently propagate through auroral phenomena routinely, begging the question of what role they may play.

Adam Paulsen, A pioneer in auroral research

The 20 to 30 years following the first International Polar Year in 1882–1883 was a period of quickly advancing knowledge and understanding of auroral phenomena. This was the time when hypotheses of aurora being due to, for example, reflections of fires from the interior of the Earth or sunlight from ice particles were abandoned and replaced by the mechanism of precipitating electrons.One of the auroral researchers at that time was the Dane Adam Frederik Wivet Paulsen (1833–1907). However, when reading literature about auroral history, his ideas and work do not seem to have attracted much interest outside his own and neighboring countries. For example, in his sweeping historical account Majestic Lights: The Aurora in Science, History, and the Arts [1980], author Robert Eather only referred to Paulsen in a couple of lines

A statistical study of intense electric fields at 4−7 R<sub><i>E</i></sub> geocentric distance using Cluster

Abstract. Intense high-latitude electric fields (>150 mV/m mapped to ionospheric altitude) at 4–7 RE geocentric distance have been investigated in a statistical study, using data from the Cluster satellites. The orbit of the Cluster satellites limits the data collection at these altitudes to high latitudes, including the poleward part of the auroral oval. The occurrence and distribution of the selected events have been used to characterize the intense electric fields and to investigate their dependance on parameters such as MLT, CGLat, altitude, and also Kp. Peaks in the local time distribution are found in the evening to morning sectors but also in the noon sector, corresponding to cusp events. The electric field intensities decrease with increasing latitude in the region investigated (above 60 CGLat). A dependence on geomagnetic activity is indicated since the probability of finding an event increases up to Kp=5–6. The scales sizes are in the range up to 10 km (mapped to ionospheric altitude) with a maximum around 4–5km, consistent with earlier findings at lower altitudes and Cluster event studies. The magnitudes of the electric fields are inversely proportional to the scale sizes. The type of electric field structure (convergent or divergent) is consistent with the FAC direction for a subset of events with electric field intensities in the range 500–1000 mV/m and with clear bipolar signatures. The FAC directions are also consistent with the Region 1 and NBZ current systems, the latter of which prevail only during northward IMF conditions. For scale sizes less than 2 km the majority of the events were divergent electric field structures. Both converging and diverging electric fields were found throughout the investigated altitude range (4–7 RE geocentric distance). Keywords. Magnetospheric physics (Electric fields; Auroral phenomena; Magnetosphere-ionosphere interactions)

Magnetic signature of the ionospheric disturbance dynamo at equatorial latitudes: “Ddyn”

During magnetic storms, wind disturbances produced by auroral phenomena can affect the whole thermospheric circulation and associated ionospheric dynamo currents for many hours after the end of the storms. In this paper we define criteria to select a new simple type of ionospheric disturbance dynamo events that allow a simple interpretation over all longitude sectors. These events exhibit a weak auroral activity during at least 24 UT hours, on the day after the storm. We analyze the magnetic disturbances “Ddyn” observed at equatorial latitudes in the three longitude sectors of such selected events. It is found for all the cases that the amplitude of the H component of the Earth's magnetic field is reduced, on the day after storm at equatorial latitudes, in agreement with the ionospheric disturbance dynamo model (Blanc and Richmond, 1980). The observation of H component decrease on the day after storm is longitudinally asymmetric. The observed signature of the ionospheric disturbance dynamo process in a specific longitude sector is strongly dependent on the magnitude, the start time, and the duration of the storm.

The relationship between auroral hiss at high altitudes over the polar caps and the substorm dynamics of aurora

Abstract. Strong variations of intensity and cutoff frequency of the auroral hiss were observed by INTERBALL-2 and POLAR satellites at high altitudes, poleward from the auroral oval. The hiss intensifications are correlated with the auroral activations during substorms and/or pseudo-breakups. The low cutoff frequency of auroral hiss increases with the distance between the aurora and the satellite footprint. Multicomponent wave measurements of the hiss emissions on board the POLAR spacecraft show that the horizontal component of the Poynting flux of auroral hiss changes its direction in good accordance with longitudinal displacements of the bright auroras. The vertical component of the Poynting flux is directed upward from the aurora region, indicating that hiss could be generated by upgoing electron beams. This relationship between hiss and the aurora dynamics means that the upgoing electron beams are closely related to downgoing electron beams which produce the aurora. During the auroral activations the upgoing and downgoing beams move and change their intensities simultaneously. Keywords. Magnetospheric physics (Auroral phenomena; Plasma waves and instabilities; Storms and substorms)

Transition from substorm growth to substorm expansion phase as observed with a radial configuration of ISTP and Cluster spacecraft

Abstract. Transition from the growth phase to the substorm expansion during a well-isolated substorm with a strong growth phase is investigated using a unique radial (THEMIS-like) spacecraft constellation near midnight, including the probing of the tail current at ~16 RE with Cluster, of the transition region at ~9 RE with Geotail and Polar, and of the inner region at 6.6 RE with two LANL spacecraft. The activity development on both a global scale and near the spacecraft footpoints was monitored with global auroral images (from the IMAGE spacecraft) and the ground network. Magnetospheric models, tuned using in-situ observations, indicated a strong tail stretching and plasma sheet thinning, which included the growth of the near-Earth current (approaching 30 nA/m2) and possible formation of a local B minimum in the neutral sheet (~5 nT) at ~10–12 RE near the substorm onset. However, there were no indications that the substorm onset was initiated just in this region. We emphasize the rather weak magnetic and plasma flow perturbations observed outside the thinned plasma sheet at Cluster, which could be interpreted as the effects of localized earthward-contracting newly-reconnected plasma tubes produced by the impulsive reconnection in the midtail plasma sheet. In that case the time delays around the distinct substorm onset are consistent with the activity propagation from the midtail to the inner magnetosphere. A peculiar feature of this substorm was that 12min prior to this distinct onset, a clear soft plasma injection to the GEO orbit was recorded which has little associated effects both in the ionosphere and in the transition region at ~9 RE. This pseudo-breakup was probably due to either a localized ballooning-type activity or due to the braking of a very narrow BBF whose signatures were also recorded by Cluster. This event manifested the (previously unknown) phenomenon, a strong tail overloading (excessive storage of magnetic energy) contrasted to the modest energy dissipation and plasma acceleration, which are both discussed and interpreted as the consequences of cold/dense and thick pre-substorm plasma sheet which often occurs after the long quiet period. The lessons of using the radial spacecraft configurations in substorm onset studies are also discussed. Keywords. Magnetospheric physics (Auroral phenomena, plasma sheet, storms and substorms)

Creation of the substorm current wedge through the perturbation of the directly driven current system: a new model for substorm expansion

Abstract. The past four decades have seen a considerable amount of research on the study of magnetospheric substorms, and over most of these years the expansive phase of the substorm has been associated with the development of a three dimensional current system that has been termed the substorm current wedge. This current system has been thought to be a consequence of the short-circuiting of crosstail current through the ionosphere, and is viewed as a distinctive current system operating independently from the directly driven current with which it co-exists. The purpose of this paper is to show that the substorm current wedge should be viewed as an equivalent current system rather than a real current system. It will be shown that the magnetic perturbation pattern associated with the current wedge can be modeled as purely a perturbation of the directly driven current system in the midnight sector. Keywords. Magnetospheric physics (Auroral phenomena; Current systems; Magnetotail; Storms and substorms

Combined optical, EISCAT and magnetic observations of the omega bands/Ps6 pulsations and an auroral torch in the late morning hours: a case study

Abstract. We present here the results of multi-instrument observations of auroral torch and Ps6 magnetic pulsations, which are assumed to be the magnetic signature of the spatially periodic optical auroras known as omega bands. Data from TV and ASC cameras in Barentsburg and Ny Ålesund, EISCAT radars in Longyearbyen and Tromsø, as well as IMAGE network were used in this study. The auroral phenomenon which was considered differed from that previously discussed, as it occurred both in an unusual place (high latitudes) and at an unusual time (late morning hours). We show that this might occur due to specific conditions in the interplanetary medium, causing the appropriate deformation of the magnetosphere. In such a case, the IMF turned out to be an additional factor in driving the regime of Ps6/omega bands, namely, only by acting together could a substorm onset in the night sector and Bz variations result in their generation. Since the presumable source of Ps6/omega bands does not co-locate with convection reversal boundaries, we suggest the interpretation of the phenomena in the frame of the interchange instability instead of the Kelvin-Helmholtz instability that is widely discussed in the literature in connection with omega auroras. Some numerical characteristics of the auroral torch were obtained. We also emphasize to the dark hole in the background luminosity and the short-lived azimuthally-restricted auroral arc, since their appearance could initiate the auroral torch development. Keywords. Magnetospheric physics (Auroral phenomena; Plasma convection; Solar wind-magnetosphere interaction)

Statistics of a parallel Poynting vector in the auroral zone as a function of altitude using Polar EFI and MFE data and Astrid-2 EMMA data

Abstract. We study the wave-related (AC) and static (DC) parallel Poynting vector (Poynting energy flux) as a function of altitude in auroral field lines using Polar EFI and MFE data. The study is statistical and contains 5 years of data in the altitude range 5000–30000 km. We verify the low altitude part of the results by comparison with earlier Astrid-2 EMMA Poynting vector statistics at 1000 km altitude. The EMMA data are also used to statistically compensate the Polar results for the missing zonal electric field component. We compare the Poynting vector with previous statistical DMSP satellite data concerning the electron precipitation power. We find that the AC Poynting vector (Alfvén-wave related Poynting vector) is statistically not sufficient to power auroral electron precipitation, although it may, for Kp>2, power 25–50% of it. The statistical AC Poynting vector also has a stepwise transition at R=4 RE, so that its amplitude increases with increasing altitude. We suggest that this corresponds to Alfvén waves being in Landau resonance with electrons, so that wave-induced electron acceleration takes place at this altitude range, which was earlier named the Alfvén Resonosphere (ARS). The DC Poynting vector is ~3 times larger than electron precipitation and corresponds mainly to ionospheric Joule heating. In the morning sector (02:00–06:00 MLT) we find that the DC Poynting vector has a nontrivial altitude profile such that it decreases by a factor of ~2 when moving upward from 3 to 4 RE radial distance. In other nightside MLT sectors the altitude profile is more uniform. The morning sector nontrivial altitude profile may be due to divergence of the perpendicular Poynting vector field at R=3–4 RE. Keywords. Magnetospheric physics (Auroral phenomena; Magnetosphere-ionosphere interactions) – Space plasma physics (Wave-particle interactions)