The dependence of pulsating auroral events on energetic electrons and cold plasma near the equatorial plane

Pulsating auroras are a substorm recovery phase phenomenon, occurring shortly after an auroral breakup. The current theory of the pulsating aurora involves a ``relaxation oscillator`` mechanism requiring a population of high-energy (10`s of keV) electrons and a low-energy plasma number density on the order of a few particles per cm{sup 3}. We investigated this relationship by comparing energetic electron and plasma data from a geosynchronous satellite to pulsating auroras recorded by an all-sky video camera which contained the satellite`s ionospheric conjugate point in its field of view. Pulsating auroral events were generally closely connected to substorm injections on the satellite, but there was no clear correlation with changes in plasma density. During all of the events the density was in an acceptable range for the relaxation oscillator mechanism to function. The relationship to substorm injections impiles that the pulsating aurora can be used to map the substorm injection region down to the ionosphere. An unusual diminishing of the pulsating aurora during the growth phase of a subsequent substorm was also discovered.