We have identified for the first time an energy-time dispersion of precipitating electron flux in a pulsating aurora patch, ranging from 6.7 keV to 580 keV, through simultaneous in-situ observations of sub-relativistic electrons of microburst precipitations and lower-energy electrons using the LAMP sounding rocket launched from the Poker Flat Research Range in Alaska. Our observations reveal that precipitating electrons with energies of 180-320 keV were observed first, followed by 250-580 keV electrons 0-30 ms later, and finally, after 500-1000 ms, 6.7-14.6 keV electrons were observed. The identified energy-time dispersion is consistent with the theoretical estimation that the relativistic electron microbursts are a high-energy tail of pulsating aurora electrons, which are caused by chorus waves propagating along the field line.

In this study, by simulating the wave-particle interactions, we show that sub-relativistic/relativistic electron microbursts form the high-energy tail of pulsating aurora (PsA). Whistler-mode chorus waves that propagate along the magnetic field lines at high latitudes cause precipitation bursts of electrons with a wide energy range from a few keV (PsA) to several MeV (relativistic microbursts). The rising tone elements of chorus waves cause individual microbursts of sub-relativistic/relativistic electrons and the internal modulation of PsA with a frequency of a few Hz. The chorus bursts for a few seconds cause the microburst trains of sub-relativistic/relativistic electrons and the main pulsations of PsA. Our simulation studies demonstrate that both PsA and relativistic electron microbursts originate simultaneously from pitch angle scattering by chorus wave-particle interactions.

An energy spectrum of electrons from 180 keV to 550 keV precipitating into the dayside polar ionosphere is observed for the first time by the HEP instrument onboard the RockSat-XN sounding rocket under geomagnetically quiet condition (AE ≤100 nT) at Andøya, Norway. The observed energy spectrum of precipitating electrons follows a power law of -4.86 and the electron flux does not vary much over the observation period (~274.4 seconds). A few minutes before the RockSat-XN observation, POES18 / MEPED observed precipitating electrons, which suggest chorus wave activities at the location close to the rocket trajectory. A ground-based VLF receiver observation at Lovozero, Russia also supports the presence of chorus waves during the rocket observation. A test-particle simulation for wave-particle interactions based on the Arase satellite data shows a similar energy spectrum of precipitating electrons, consistent with the RockSat-XN observation. These results suggest that the precipitation observed by RockSat-XN is likely to be caused by the wave-particle interactions between chorus waves and sub-relativistic electrons.

Electrostatic electron cyclotron harmonic (ECH) waves are generally excited in the magnetic equator region, in the midnight and the morning sectors during geomagnetically active conditions, and cause the pitch angle scattering by cyclotron resonance. The scattered electrons precipitate into the Earth’s atmosphere and cause auroral emission. However, there is no observational evidence that ECH waves actually scatter electrons into the loss cone in the magnetosphere. In this study, from simultaneous wave and particle observation data obtained by the Arase satellite equipped with a high-pitch angular resolution electron analyzer, we present evidence that the ECH wave intensity near the magnetic equator is correlated with an electron flux inside the loss cone with energy of about 5 keV. The simulation suggests that this electron flux contributes to auroral emission at 557.7 nm with intensity of about 200 R.

In recent years, auroral observation networks using high-sensitivity cameras have been developed in the polar regions. These networks allow us to observe dimmer auroras such as pulsating auroras (PsAs) with a high signal-to-noise ratio. We reconstructed the horizontal distribution of precipitating electrons using computed tomography with monochromatic PsA images obtained from three observation points. The three-dimensional distribution of the volume emission rate (VER) of the PsA was also reconstructed. The characteristic energy of the reconstructed precipitating electron flux ranged from 6 keV to 23 keV, and the peak altitude of the reconstructed VER ranged from 90 to 104 km. We evaluated the results using a model aurora and compared the model’s electron density with the observed electron density. The electron density was reconstructed correctly to some extent. These results suggest that the horizontal distribution of precipitating electrons associated with PsAs can be effectively reconstructed from ground-based optical observations.

Pulsating auroras (PsAs) are considered to be caused by energetic (~10 keV) electron precipitations. Additionally, soft electron precipitations (~1 keV) have often been observed in PsAs. These soft electron precipitations enhance the electron density in the ionospheric F region. However, to date, the relationship between PsAs and soft electron precipitation has not been well understood. In this study, using the data taken by the European incoherent scatter radar and the auroral all-sky imager at Tromso;, we conducted two case studies to investigate, in detail, the relationship between the electron density height profile and the type of aurora. Additionally, we conducted statistical studies for 14 events to elucidate how often F region electron density enhancement occurs with a PsA. We consequently found that 76% of electron density height profiles showed a local peak in the F region, with electron temperature enhancements. It was also found that 89% of the F region peak altitudes were above the peak altitude of the ionization rate produced by electrons of characteristic energy below 100 eV. The occurrence rate of these profiles in the hourly magnetic local time (MLT) exceeded 80% in the 22–3 MLT sectors. We suggest that the electron density enhancement in the F region would have been caused by electrostatic electron cyclotron harmonic waves in the magnetosphere. Another candidate would have been polar patches that had traveled from the dayside ionosphere.

We report on the relationship between pulsating aurora and relativistic electron microburst using simultaneous observations of ground-based fast auroral imagers with the FIREBIRD-Ⅱ CubeSat for the first time. We conducted a detailed analysis of an event on October 8, 2018 and found that the occurrence of a pulsating aurora with internal modulations corresponds to the flux enhancement of electrons with energy ranging from 219.7 to 984.95 keV detected with Flight Unit 4, one of FIREBIRD’s CubeSat, with a time delay of 525 ms. Assuming that the pulsating aurora was produced by 10-keV electrons, we suggest that this time difference of 525 ms is consistent with the theory by Miyoshi et al. (2020) that a pulsating aurora and microburst occur due to the chorus waves at different latitudes along the same field line.

Inner magnetospheric electrons are precipitated into the ionosphere via pitch-angle (PA) scattering by lower band chorus (LBC), upper band chorus (UBC), and electrostatic electron cyclotron harmonic (ECH) waves at different magnetic latitudes. The PA scattering efficiency of low-energy electrons (0.1–10 keV) is yet to be investigated via in situ observations because of difficulties in flux measurements inside loss cones at the magnetosphere. In this study, we demonstrate that LBC, UBC, and ECH waves contribute to PA scattering of electrons at different energies using the Arase (ERG) satellite observation data and successively detected the loss cone filling, i.e., strong diffusion. For LBC waves, strong diffusion occurred at energies above ~1 keV, whereas it occurred below ~1 keV for UBC and ECH waves. The occurrence rate of the strong diffusion by high-amplitude LBC (>50 pT), UBC (>20 pT), and ECH (>10 mV/m) waves, respectively, reached ~70%, 20%, and 40% higher than that without simultaneous wave activity. The energy range where the occurrence rate was high agreed with the range where the PA diffusion rate of each wave exceeded the strong diffusion level based on the quasilinear theory.

Whistler mode chorus waves scatter magnetospheric electrons and cause precipitation into the Earth’s atmosphere. Previous measurements showed that nightside chorus waves are indeed responsible for diffuse/pulsating aurora. Although chorus waves and electron precipitation have also been detected on the dayside, their link has not been illustrated (or demonstrated) in detail compared to the nightside observations. Conventional low-altitude satellite observations do not well resolve the energy range of 10–100 keV, hampering verification on resonance condition with chorus waves. In this paper we report observations of energetic electrons with energies of 30–100 keV that were made by the electron sensor installed on the NASA’s sounding rocket RockSat-XN. It was launched from the Andøya Space Center on the dayside (MLT ~ 11 h) at the L-value of ~ 7 on 13 January 2019. Transient electron precipitation was observed at ~ 50 keV with the duration of <100 s. A ground station at Kola peninsula in Russia near the rocket’s footprint observed intermittent emissions of whistler-mode waves simultaneously with the rocket observations. The energy of precipitating electrons is consistent with those derived from the quasi-linear theory of pitch angle scattering by chorus waves through cyclotron resonance, assuming a typical dayside magnetospheric electron density. Precise interaction region is discussed based on the obtained energy spectrum below 100 keV.