Polar Cap Precursor of Nightside Auroral Oval Intensifications Using Polar Cap Arcs

Abstract:

Recent radar and optical observations have revealed that localized fast flows in the polar cap can closely relate to disturbances within the nightside auroral oval. However, how commonly this connection occurs has been difficult to examine due to limited coverage of radar flow measurements and diffuse and dim nature of airglow patches. This question can now be addressed by using polar cap arcs, which are also associated with fast flows and appear much brighter than patches, allowing evaluation of the interaction between polar cap flows and nightside aurora more definitively. Utilizing an array of high-resolution 630.0 nm all-sky imagers, we have selected quasi-steady polar cap arcs lasting >1 h from six winter seasons. Thirty four arcs are found and for the majority (~85%) of them, as they extend equatorward from magnetic pole, their contact with the nightside auroral poleward boundary is associated with new and substantial intensifications within the oval, in contrast to the otherwise quiet oval. These intensifications are localized (<~1 h MLT) and statistically occur within 10 min and ±1 h MLT from the contact. They appear as poleward boundary intensifications (PBIs) in a thick auroral oval or an intensification of the only resolvable arc in a thin oval, and the latter can also exhibit substantial poleward expansion. When radar echoes are available, they corroborate the association of polar cap arcs with localized enhanced anti-sunward polar cap flows. That the observed oval intensifications are major disturbances that only occur after and initiate near the impingement of polar cap arcs suggest that they are triggered by localized fast flows coming from deep in the polar cap. Such observation suggests that meso-scale fast flows in the lobe can traverse the open-closed field line boundary through enhanced magnetic reconnection and closely couple with disturbances in the plasma sheet.