Estimating 1D Electric Field structure across mesoscale auroral forms using PFISR measurements

Particle precipitation from the magnetosphere to the ionosphere which forms aurora at high latitudes can organize into dynamic structures spanning 10-500 km in spatial size, and have a temporal resolution of one to tens of minutes known as meso-scale auroral forms. While there are 1-D electric field configurations for discrete aurora, electric fields have not been studied statistically, especially for mesoscale forms that deviate from the stable/quiet arc configuration. The spatial and temporal variation of the electric field is important for understanding current closure in the auroral region. This study uses measurements from the Poker Flat Incoherent Scatter Radar (PFISR) to estimate the electric fields and plasma drifts as a function of magnetic latitude in the F region. The line of sight (LOS) velocity from multiple beam PFISR experiments is used to calculate perpendicular plasma drift as a function of magnetic latitude using a Bayesian inversion approach. These vector velocities are then converted to electric fields and examined to determine how they vary across auroral structures observed over Poker Flat as determined using All Sky Imager (ASI) observations. Despite having more than 10 years of PFISR observations, 1-D electric fields have not yet been investigated, even for relatively stable aurora. This analysis is a broader way of understanding how the electrodynamic properties of morphologically distinct auroral forms vary and their importance in magnetosphere-ionosphere(MI) coupling. In addition, a thorough determination of electrodynamic properties and their correlations would be necessary to understand how energy is dissipated across different auroral forms. We also seek to understand how our observations compare with previous observations that characterized discrete aurora in terms of correlation and anticorrelation arcs. This poster serves as an early step toward a broader statistical study that brings together PFISR-derived electrodynamic properties and auroral morphology observed in optical data.