Comparison of Fine Structures of Electron Cyclotron Harmonic Emissions in Aurora

Abstract:

Recent discoveries of emissions at four and five times the electron cyclotron frequency in aurora occuring under daylit conditions motivated the modification of radio receivers at South Pole Station, Antarctica, to measure fine structure of such emissions during two consecutive austral summers, 2013-4 and 2014-5. The experiment recorded 347 emission events over 376 days of observation. The seasonal distribution of these events revealed that successively higher harmonics require higher solar zenith angles for occurrence, as expected if they are generated at locations where the upper hybrid frequency matches the cyclotron harmonic, which for higher harmonics requires higher electron densities which are associated with higher solar zenith angles. Detailed examination of 21 cases in which two harmonics occur simultaneously showed that only rarely, about ten percent of the time, are the frequencies of the fine structures of the emissions in exact integer ratio (e.g., 3:2, 4:3, or 5:4 depending on which combination of harmonics is observed). In the remaining approximately ninety percent of the cases, the higher harmonic occurred at a lower ratio than the appropriate integer ratio, as expected if the harmonics are generated independently at their separate matching conditions in the bottomside ionosphere, where the upper hybrid frequency increases with altitude while the gyroharmonics decrease with altitude. (The bottomside is the most likely source of the emissions, since from there the mode converted Z-modes have access to ground-level.) Taken together, these results suggest that the dominant mechanism for the higher harmonics is independent generation at locations where the upper hybrid frequency matches each harmonic, i.e., at a separate source altitude for each harmonic. Generation of higher harmonics through coalescence of lower harmonic waves explains at most a small minority of events.