Comparison of radio-auroral spectral characteristics at 398 MHz with incoherent scatter measurements of electric field

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Abstract
Radio-auroral Doppler measurements obtained with the 398-MHz Homer phased-array radar were compared with simultaneous and coincident measurements of electron density and electric field made by the Chatanika incoherent scatter radar. The results for this post-midnight period of observation are not consistent with a direct relationship between the radio-auroral Doppler velocity and the line of sight component of the electron drift velocity, in contrast to the previous observations at VHF. Instead, the observations are consistent with the hypothesis that the echoes arise from the two-stream/drift-gradient irregularities traveling at their threshold phase velocities, close to the local acoustic velocity, Cs. Some of the Doppler velocities observed are considerably less than Cs, and may indicate propagation away from perpendicular to the magnetic field, possibly resulting from magnetic field line distortion.

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