Dayside aurorae and their relation to other geophysical phenomena

Abstract Principal morphological peculiarities of auroral luminosity are investigated on the basis of the data from multi-year aurorae observations in day hours at Spitzbergen and Franz Jozef Land. It is shown that in this region the typical forms of aurorae are moving poleward rayed arcs appearing at the equatorward boundary of the auroral oval and disappearing at its pole boundary. Discrete forms of aurorae are located inside a much broader red luminosity band in its equatorward part. Auroral pulsations with a period of 10–50 s are observed in the prenoon sector in a region of much harder precipitations found more equatorward with respect to the daytime red luminosity band. The influence of a B z IMF component upon daytime aurorae is exercised both directly through an equatorward (poleward) shift of daytime aurorae upon decreasing (increasing) B z and via an increase in a planetary geomagnetic activity related to the appearance of substorms during which the whole region of the daytime luminosity is shifted to much lower latitudes. A decrease of intensity of daytime aurorae with duration of 5–10 min before the beginning of an expansive phase of a substorm on the night side is detected. The peculiarities of the daytime aurorae dynamics during substorms are also investigated. A scheme of the daytime auroral luminosity distribution is presented. Analytical expressions of the dependence of the daytime aurorae position on IMF are provided. Certain physical mechanisms that can explain the peculiarities of daytime aurorae dynamics are also discussed.