Auroral Response to Sudden Changes in the Solar Wind and IMF

English Abstract:

Sudden changes in the solar driver of magnetospheric activity provide us with exciting opportunities to study the physics of the aurora. In this talk, we focus on how sudden impulses, where the solar wind dynamic pressure changes significantly and quickly, affect the auroral distribution. In particular, we look at polar cap aurora observed in the Oxygen redline with the new Geospace Observatory (GO) Canada REdline Geospace Observatory (REGO) network of imagers, focusing on a sudden impulse that occurred around 11 UT on December 23, 2014. During this event, clearly as a result of the sudden impulse, numerous pre-existing transpolar arcs brighten significantly and stay bright for hours following. The pre-existence, multiplicity, and brightening of the transpolar arcs all speak to their origin.