Optical measurements from three selected wavelengths have been combined with modelling of emissions from an auroral event to estimate the magnitude and direction of small-scale electric fields on either side of an auroral arc. The temporal resolution of the estimates is 0.1 seconds, which is much higher resolution than measurements from SuperDARN from the same region, with which we compare our estimates. Additionally, we have used the SCANDI instrument to measure the neutral wind during the event in order to calculate the height integrated Joule heating. Joule heating obtained from the small scale electric fields gives larger values (17 {plus minus} 11 and 6 {plus minus} 9 mWm-2 on average on each side of the arc) than the Joule heating obtained from more conventionally used SuperDARN data (4.8 mWm-2). This result indicates that high spatial and temporal resolution electric fields may play an important role in the dynamics of the thermosphere, and thus the ionosphere-magnetosphere system in general.

We examine the average evolution of precipitation-induced height-integrated conductances, along with field-aligned currents, in the nightside sector of the polar cap over the course of a substorm. Conductances are estimated from the average energy flux and mean energies derived from auroral emission data. Data are binned using a superposed epoch analysis on a normalised time grid based on the time between onset and recovery phase ($\delta$t) of each contributing substorm. We also examine conductances using a fixed time binning of width 0.25 hr. We split the data set by magnetic latitude of onset. We find that the highest conductances are observed for substorms with onsets that occur between 63 and 65 degrees magnetic latitude, peaking at around 11 mho (Hall) and 4.8 mho (Pedersen). Substorms with onsets at higher magnetic latitudes show lower conductances and less variability. Changes in conductance over the course of a substorm appear primarily driven by changes (about 40% at onset) in the average energy flux, rather than the average energy of the precipitation. Average energies increase after onset slower than energy flux, later these energies decrease slowly for the lowest latitude onsets. No clear expansion of the main region 1 and region 2 field-aligned currents is observed. However, we do see an ordering of the current magnitudes with magnetic latitude of onset, particularly for region 1 downwards FAC in the morning sector. Peak current magnitudes occur slightly after or before the start of the recovery phase for the normalised and fixed-time grids.

We model an interval of sustained northward interplanetary magnetic field, for which we have a comprehensive set of observational data. This interval is associated with the arrival of an interplanetary coronal mass ejection. The solar wind densities at the time are particularly high and the interplanetary magnetic field is primarily northward. This results in strong auroral emissions within the polar cap in a cusp spot, which we associate with lobe reconnection at the high-latitude magnetopause. We also observe areas of upwards field-aligned current within the summer Northern Hemisphere polar cap that exhibit large current magnitudes. The model is able to reproduce the spatial distribution of the field-aligned currents well, even under changing conditions in the incoming interplanetary magnetic field. Discrepancies exist between the modeled and observed current magnitudes. Notably, the winter Southern Hemisphere exhibits much lower current magnitudes overall. We also model a sharp transition of the location of magnetopause reconnection. This changes rapidly from a subsolar location at the low-latitude magnetopause under southward interplanetary magnetic field conditions, to a high-latitude lobe reconnection location when the field is northward. This occurs during a fast rotation of the IMF at the shock front of a magnetic cloud.

The equatorial ionosopheric anomalies (EIA) at night are the slowly recombining remnants of the dayside ionosphere, and charged particle densities slowly decay during the course of the night. Thus the electron density in ionosphere in the early morning (0300-0400 Local time) is usually very low and the ionospheric UV 135.6 nm O+ recombination emission is rarely detectable from current UV remote sensing instruments. However, there are times when the EIA have unusually high density even during these morning times and are observable by the DMSP/SSUSI and TIMED/GUVI instruments. By using other UV ‘colors’ - 130.4 nm (from monatomic Oxygen) and N2 Lyman Birge Hopfield bands - we can establish that this emission is definitely from the ionosphere recombination emission. We will show examples of this phenomenon, and correlate these occurrences to geomagnetic storm events. We estimate the electron density in the early morning EIA and compare with other ionosphere observations and climatological models. In the figure below, we show the 135.6 nm radiance seen by DMSP F16 SSUSI as it crosses the equator around 210 degrees longitude (over the Pacific Ocean) at 03:45 local time. The equatorial anomaly peaks are clearly visible in the SSUSI data. These radiances are background subtracted, which is not perfect and introduces a small (-1 Rayleigh) bias to the resulting radiances. DMSP = Defense Meteorological Satellite Program, SSUSI = Special Sensor Ultraviolet Spectrographic Imager; TIMED = Thermosphere, Ionosphere, Mesosphere Energetics and Dynamics, GUVI = Global UltraViolet Imager

We propose a mechanism for the formation of the horse-collar auroral configuration during periods of strongly northwards interplanetary magnetic field, invoking the action of dual-lobe reconnection (DLR). Auroral observations are provided by the Imager for Magnetopause-to-Auroras Global Exploration (IMAGE) satellite and spacecraft of the Defense Meteorological Satellite Program (DMSP). We also use ionospheric flow measurements from DMSP and polar maps of field-aligned currents (FACs) derived from the Active Magnetosphere and Planetary Electrodynamics Response Experiment (AMPERE). Sunward convection is observed within the dark polar cap, with antisunwards flows within the horse-collar auroral region, together with the NBZ FAC distribution expected to be associated with DLR. We suggest that newly-closed flux is transported antisunwards and to dawn and dusk within the reverse lobe cell convection pattern associated with DLR, causing the polar cap to acquire a teardrop shape and weak auroras to form at high latitudes. Horse-collar auroras are a common feature of the quiet magnetosphere, and this model provides a first understanding of their formation, resolving several outstanding questions regarding the nature of DLR and the magnetospheric structure and dynamics during northwards IMF. The model can also provide insights into the trapping of solar wind plasma by the magnetosphere and the formation of a low-latitude boundary layer and cold, dense plasma sheet.

Due to the high spectral resolution goals (R > 2x10^4) for the upcoming Full-sun Ultraviolet Rocket Spectrograph (FURST), instrument calibration will be particularly important. The Solar Physics groups at NASA MSFC and Montana State University (MSU) have been developing the tools necessary to achieve this goal. These include improved tracking of error propagation, in-situ monitoring of the camera gain with a radioactive Fe-55 source, and even better wavelength calibration. This presentation will focus on the latter. We will highlight the development of a calibration method which uses a two-dimensional second-order polynomial to map pixels to wavelength under a simulated noisy diagnostic lamp signal. Additionally, we have introduced a tilted CCD in order to overcome the Nyquist limit. With this as the background, we have been investigating an effect known well among ground-based imaging: geocoronal absorption. We have been looking into how much this effect will be present in the atmosphere at sounding-rocket altitudes (~100-200km). Many studies have found ways to correct for these so-called “Telluric” lines. However, it may be that these lines can in fact be a useful tool to further improve our calibration, rather than simply a nuisance to be corrected for!

Following the St. Patrick’s Day (17 March) geomagnetic storm of 2013, the interplanetary magnetic field had near-zero clock angle for almost two days. Throughout this period multiple cusp-aligned auroral arcs formed in the polar regions; we present observations of, and provide a new explanation for, this poorly-understood phenomenon. The arcs were observed by auroral imagers onboard satellites of the Defense Meteorological Satellite Program (DMSP). Ionospheric flow measurements and observations of energetic particles from the same satellites show that the arcs were produced by inverted-V precipitation associated with upward field-aligned currents at shears in the convection pattern. The large-scale convection pattern revealed by the Super Dual Auroral Radar Network (SuperDARN) and the corresponding FAC pattern observed by the Active Magnetosphere and Planetary Electrodynamics Response Experiment (AMPERE) suggest that dual-lobe reconnection was ongoing to produce significant closure of the magnetosphere. However, we propose that once the magnetosphere became nearly closed complicated lobe reconnection geometries arose that produced interleaving of regions of open and closed magnetic flux and spatial and temporal structure in the convection pattern that evolved on timescales shorter than the orbital period of the DMSP spacecraft.