Research Objectives:
We plan to operate two ground-based imagers at South Pole Station and combine their observations with simultaneous global auroral observations by the IMAGE (Imager for Magnetopause to Aurora Global Exploration) spacecraft investigating temporal and spatial effects in the ionosphere from the reconnection processes at the magnetopause. The South Pole has advantages for auroral imaging because the continuous darkness during the winter allows 24 hours of optical observations and because the ideal magnetic latitude permits observation of the dayside aurora. The reconnection (merging) region of the magnetosphere provides the most significant entry point for solar wind plasma. It is now widely accepted that the dayside region contains the footprint of field lines that participate in reconnection processes with the interplanetary field.
Although there is a body of literature about the auroral footprints of the dayside reconnection region derived from ground-based observations, it has not been possible to relate those results to simultaneous global auroral images. Global observations of proton auroras from the IMAGE spacecraft have provided direct images of the footprint of the reconnection region, showing that reconnection occurs continuously and that the spatial distribution of the precipitation follows theoretically predicted behavior as a function of the interplanetary field. The apogee of the IMAGE spacecraft orbit is slowly drifting south, and during the austral winter of 2004, the apogee will be over the Southern Hemisphere. Thus, it will be possible to obtain simultaneous global images of the aurora by IMAGE and of the high-latitude dayside region by two ground-based imagers (electron and proton auroras) at South Pole Station.
Our main goal is to capitalize on this unique opportunity and use the IMAGE satellite as the telescope and the ground-based imagers as the microscope for these observations in an attempt to better understand substorms and related phenomena. Understanding the Earth's electromagnetic environment is key to predicting space weather and to determining how geoactive magnetic storms are. We will continue to involve students in every phase of the program, thereby encouraging some of them to start a career in upper-atmospheric research.
