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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Astron. Space Sci.
Sec. Space Physics
Volume 12 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fspas.2025.1561439
Spatio-temporal Evolution of Pulsating Aurora Observed Using a Ground-Based Imagers
Provisionally accepted
MEGHA PANDYA1,2*
Ankush Bhaskar3
Marilia Samara1
Robert Michell1
Emma Mirizio1,2Suk-Bin Kang1,2
Lauren W Blum4- 1Heliophysics Science Division, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, United States
- 2The Catholic University of America, Washington, D.C., District of Columbia, United States
- 3Space Physics Laboratory, Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala, India
- 4Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics, University of Colorado Boulder, Boulder, Colorado, United States
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We investigated the pulsating aurora observed on 7 January 2014, by a narrow field-of-view (FOV) high-time resolution ground-based white-light imager and all-sky low-time-resolution imager operated at Poker Flat, AK (geographic: 65.1 • N, 147.4 • W). The pulsating aurora showed very notable characteristics, such as frequency drift in their pulsation with time and drifting of the entire pulsating auroral structure in space. We find that (i) the entire pulsating auroral patch was observed to drift northward at a velocity of approximately 76 m/s, which aligns closely with the local convection velocities obtained from Super Dual Auroral Radar Network (SuperDARN) data, consistent with the idea that the patch motion is primarily due to E×B convection. (ii) The duration of persistence for each pulsation in the pulsating aurora is found to be ∼1 s. (iii) The auroral pulsation frequency abruptly increases from ∼0.0625 Hz to ∼0.5 Hz, closely aligning with the broadening of the frequency band observed at the Dawson (DAWS) ground magnetometer location. Wavelet analysis of DAWS magnetic field data, recorded at similar magnetic local time (MLT) and L-values, reveals the presence of Pc-1 geomagnetic pulsation (Pc-1). This connection suggests that the drift in auroral pulsation frequency may be driven by the evolution of Pc-1 waves, which are influenced by changes in the local plasma environment. The broadening of the frequency band may indicate dynamic variations in magnetospheric ion composition or plasma density. This interplay underscores the role of Pc-1 waves and magnetospheric dynamics in determining the auroral pulsation characteristics.
Keywords: pulsating aurora, ground imagers, pulsation drift, inner magnetosphere, Pc-1 waves
Received: 15 Jan 2025; Accepted: 15 Apr 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 PANDYA, Bhaskar, Samara, Michell, Mirizio, Kang and Blum. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: MEGHA PANDYA, Heliophysics Science Division, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, United States
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