Active auroral arc powered by accelerated electrons from very high altitudes.

Bright, discrete, thin auroral arcs are a typical form of auroras in nightside polar regions. Their light is produced by magnetospheric electrons, accelerated downward to obtain energies of several kilo electron volts by a quasi-static electric field. These electrons collide with and excite thermosphere atoms to higher energy states at altitude of ~ 100 km; relaxation from these states produces the auroral light. The electric potential accelerating the aurora-producing electrons has been reported to lie immediately above the ionosphere, at a few altitudes of thousand kilometres1. However, the highest altitude at which the precipitating electron is accelerated by the parallel potential drop is still unclear. Here, we show that active auroral arcs are powered by electrons accelerated at altitudes reaching greater than 30,000 km. We employ high-angular resolution electron observations achieved by the Arase satellite in the magnetosphere and optical observations of the aurora from a ground-based all-sky imager. Our observations of electron properties and dynamics resemble those of electron potential acceleration reported from low-altitude satellites except that the acceleration region is much higher than previously assumed. This shows that the dominant auroral acceleration region can extend far above a few thousand kilometres, well within the magnetospheric plasma proper, suggesting formation of the acceleration region by some unknown magnetospheric mechanisms.

Rank-ordered multifractal analysis for intermittent fluctuations with global crossover behavior.

The rank-ordered multifractal analysis (ROMA), a recently developed technique that combines the ideas of parametric rank ordering and one-parameter scaling of monofractals, has the capabilities of deciphering the multifractal characteristics of intermittent fluctuations. The method allows one to understand the multifractal properties through rank-ordered scaling or nonscaling parametric variables. The idea of the ROMA technique is applied to analyze the multifractal characteristics of the auroral zone electric-field fluctuations observed by the SIERRA sounding rocket. The observed fluctuations span across contiguous multiple regimes of scales with different multifractal characteristics. We extend the ROMA technique such that it can take into account the crossover behavior--with the possibility of collapsing probability distribution functions--over these contiguous regimes.