Browsing by Author "Duthie, Desmond D."

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Aurora and associated VLF phenomena.
(1978) Duthie, Desmond D.; Scourfield, Malcolm W. J.
Observations have been made at Sanae (gm. lat. -63,71°) on occurring auroral forms, (diffuse and pulsating aurora), and simultaneous occurring VLF phenomena, (whistlers and auroral hiss) . Two studies are presented in this thesis. (a) A comparison of the positions of auroral forms and the positions of field lines, along which whistlers propagate, is made and it is found that: (i) Diffuse aurora occurs on closed field lines and indirect evidence shows that this is also the case for pulsating aurora. (ii) For two periods of data the separation of diffuse aurora from the plasmapause ranges from < 0,9 L to < 0,2 L but during a third period, the diffuse aurora lies, at least partially, within the plasmasphere. (b) An investigation into the association between pulsating aurora and pulsating auroral hiss is made and it is shown that: (i) A common identical pulsation period of 0,75 s and high coherency exists between the light intensity of an auroral patch and the intensity of the associated pulsating auroral hiss. This suggests a wave-particle interaction as a common modulation mechanism. (ii) Cyclotron instability (gyroresonance) or Cerenkov radiation mechanisms occurring in the equatorial plane do not account for the time delays, typically between 0,90 s and 0,157 s, found to be present between, the two phenomena, where the incident auroral electrons, responsible for the auroral patch light intensity, are observed to arrive before the auroral hiss emissions. The results of the analysis in (a) are reported in The Journal of Atmospheric and Terrestrial Physics, 39, 1429, 1977.