Variation of the Altitude of Auroral Emission During a Substorm Cycle: Stereoscopic Optical Observations During the LAMP Rocket Experiment

Abstract

We estimated the altitude of aurora by combining data from all-sky cameras at multiple places which were obtained during the LAMP sounding rocket experiment in Alaska on 5 March 2022. During the launch window of the rocket, three high-speed all-sky cameras were operative at three stations immediately below the trajectory of the rocket: Poker Flat, Venetie and Fort Yukon. The all-sky cameras captured all-sky images with a temporal resolution of 100 Hz (80 Hz for the Fort Yukon case). The method of altitude determination is based on analyses of time-series of the optical intensity obtained from the all-sky cameras in Venetie and Poker Flat covering the downrange area of the rocket trajectory. The estimated altitude of pulsating aurora during the rocket experiment was found to be consistent with that derived from the in-situ observation of precipitating electrons with a model of optical emission, which confirms the feasibility of deriving the emission altitude through correlation analyses using time-series. The estimated altitude of aurora decreased after the expansion onset of the substorm and stayed slightly below 100 km during the interval of pulsating aurora in the recovery phase. In particular, prompt and brief lowering of the auroral emission, well down to around 90 km, was detected during a transition of auroral form from discrete to diffuse which occurred ∼10 min after the onset. This result implies an existence of a process causing harder electron precipitation operative soon after the start of the expansion phase of auroral substorm.