High Resolution Mapping of the Auroral Electrojet via VLF Wave Generation and Time of Arrival Analysis at HAARP

The auroral electrojet is an ionospheric component of the coupled ionosphere, thermosphere, magnetosphere, and heliosphere system. Historically, the auroral electrojet has been mapped using chains of flux gate magnetometers. This method has been useful for monitoring auroral activity; however, the resulting current density maps have low spatial resolution, on the order of, at best 100s of kilometers latitudinally. In this work we attempt to use time of arrival (TOA) analysis to spatially map relative current densities of the lower D region via VLF wave generation at the High Frequency Active Auroral Research Program (HAARP) heating facility in Gakona, Alaska.