Temporal and spatial characteristics of auroral energy deposition

Abstract:

Auroral electron precipitation forms a complex and dynamic energy input into the high-latitude ionosphere and thermopshere. Rapid changes in plasma density due to electron impact ionization create correspondingly rapid changes in conductivity which in turn change the magnitude and altitude profile of magnetospheric current closure in the E- and F-region. Modeling these changes in the ionosphere and their effects on the local or regional upper atmosphere requires detailed input over wide regions. In support of the AMISR PINOT campaign and several rocket campaigns (CASCADES-2, MICA, ASSP) we have developed and tested a method to determine the characteristics of auroral energy input using purely ground-based optical measurements in geometries away from magnetic zenith. Using the N2+ first negative emissions at 427.8 nm reproduces the total energy flux over a wide region, but alone does not indicate the altitude profile of this energy deposition.
Using temperature maps of the E-region collected by a Scanning Doppler Imager (SDI) observing the auroral green-line emission is a proxy for the characteristic energy of the precipitating electrons. While in some cases the energy determination underestimates the average energy it still is a good proxy for understanding when the electron distribution changes. We examine two seasons worth of auroral observations and determine the spatial and temporal variability of auroral energy deposition in comparison to solar wind and geophysical activity parameters. We also compare the results with well-known empirical models of electron energy deposition and show that they underestimate the peak local energy deposition rates by as much as a factor of 30.