The ACES-II sounding rocket mission launched two payloads from Andøya Rocket Range into a post-dusk discrete auroral arc and observed field-aligned electron dispersions near inverted-V precipitation. Five repetitive suprathermal electron bursts (STEBs) associated with low frequency (< 8 Hz) Earth-ward traveling Alfvén waves are observed at 400 km altitude. The electron bursts occur both coincident and outside inverted-V electrons, with those nearest to inverted-V precipitation displaying higher peak energy and differential flux values than events further away. We interpret the events as wave-particle acceleration via inertial Alfvén waves along near-Earth field lines and employ time-of-flight methods to gauge source altitudes. We show the differences in STEB behavior are better explained by changes in the resonant source population and not from significant variation in Alfvén wave parameters, a result that agrees with previous simulated predictions.

During the Twin Rockets to Investigate Cusp Electrodynamics (TRICE-2) High-Flyer rocket’s passage through the cusp the high frequency (HF) radio wave receiver observed three intervals of banded Upper-Hybrid (UH) waves. The bands begin at the UH frequency ($\sim$1.2–1.3 MHz), descending to as low as 1.1 MHz, with amplitudes of hundreds of mV/m. The spacing of the bands are $\sim$4.5–6 kHz and the number of bands ranges from three to ten. Simultaneously, the very low frequency (VLF) radio wave receiver observed Lower-Hybrid (LH) waves with amplitudes ranging from 1–10 mV/m and frequencies of 4.5-6 kHz. Slight variations of the spacings of the bands in the UH waves were closely correlated with variations in the LH peak frequencies. Two possible wave-wave interactions are explored to explain this phenomenon: decay of an UH wave into a lower frequency UH wave and a LH wave, and coalescence of independent UH waves and LH waves that spawn UH waves. Using a dispersion relation calculator with electron and ion distribution functions based off those observed by the particle instruments suggests that UH waves, and to a lesser degree LH waves, can be excited by linear instabilities. Kinematic analysis of the waves dispersion relations and the wave matching conditions show that wave-wave interactions linking UH and LH modes are possible through either decay or coalescence. This analysis along with comparisons of the energy densities of the waves, and the ratio of their occupation numbers suggest that the decay process is more likely than coalescence.

Auroral whistler mode radio emissions called saucers are of fundamental interest because they require an unusually stationary emission process in the dynamic auroral environment, and it is a mystery how that can happen in this or similar conditions elsewhere in geospace. The Cusp Alfven and Plasma Electrodynamics Rocket (CAPER-2), launched into the polar cusp and obtained the first rocket measurements of a large-scale, multiple-armed dayside saucers, similar to those recently observed by the the DEMETER satellite, with the addition of in situ particle measurements and simultaneous conjugate ground-based measurements. For 300 s prior to cusp entry, CAPER-2 detected ~15 truncated saucer arms lasting 5–50 s. Directional analysis using waveforms, combined with ground-based data, suggests that these originate within the cusp. Ray-tracing analysis indicates source altitudes ~2500 km. On-board particle instruments show dispersed electron bursts in the cusp, presumed Alfvenically accelerated, corresponding to approximately the same source heights as the saucers.