Electrostatic Electron Cyclotron Harmonic Waves as a Candidate to Cause Pulsating Auroras

Abstract

Pulsating auroras (PsAs) are thought to be generated by precipitating electrons scattered by lower-band chorus (LBC) waves near the magnetic equator. One-to-one correlation between the LBC intensity and the PsA intensity has been reported. Electrostatic electron cyclotron harmonic (ECH) waves can also scatter electrons. However, direct correlation between ECH and PsA has not been reported yet. In this study, using a coordinated Exploration of energization and Radiation in Geospace (Arase) satellite and ground-based imager observation, we report that not only LBC but also ECH have correlation with PsA. We estimated the precipitating electron energy by assuming that the time lag when the cross-correlation coefficient became the highest was travel time of electrons from the modulation region. We found that the estimated energies show reasonable values as the cyclotron resonance energy of each wave.