Contemporaneous Appearances of Local-Scale Auroral Spiral and
Global-Scale Transpolar Arc: Changes of Auroras and Field-Aligned
Current Profiles Before a Substorm and After Its Recovery Phase
Abstract
Local vortex-structured auroral spiral and a large-scale transpolar arc
(TPA) were contemporaneously observed by the Polar ultraviolet imager
(UVI), when a substorm almost recovered. The TPA grew along the dawnside
auroral oval from the nightside to the dayside (oval-aligned TPA), and a
chain of multiple auroral spots and spiral were located azimuthally near
the poleward edge of the nightside auroral oval. Contemporaneous
appearances of the TPA and the auroral spiral can be seen after the
spiral appeared alone. Polar also detected the oval-aligned TPA and
another dawnside TPA with the nightside end distorted toward the
premidnight sector (J-shaped TPA) before and after the spiral’s
formation, respectively. To examine these associated magnetotail
structures, we performed global magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) simulations,
based on two different types of code, BAT-S-RUS and improved REPPU, and
examined how the field-aligned current (FAC) profiles varied in
association with changes of the auroral form to TPA and/or auroral
spiral. Global MHD simulations with the two different types of code can
reproduce the TPAs and the associated FAC structures in the magnetotail.
The auroral spiral and its nightside FAC profile, however, were not
formed in both simulations, suggesting that its formation process cannot
be treated within an MHD framework but is closely related to some
kinetic process. When the J-shaped TPA and the auroral spiral
contemporaneously appeared, the two MHD simulations could not reproduce
the TPA, spiral and their associated magnetotail FAC structures, also
advocating that a kinetic effect related to the spiral formation might
prevent the TPA occurrence.