Isolated proton aurora (IPA) is a manifestation of the wave‐particle interaction visible at subauroral latitudes, with activity on many timescales. We herein present the first observational evidence of rapid luminous modulation of IPA correlated with simultaneously observed Pc1 waves observed on the ground, which are equivalent to the electromagnetic ion cyclotron (EMIC) waves in the magnetosphere. The fastest luminous modulation of IPA was observed in the 1 Hz frequency range, which was twice the frequency of the related Pc1 waves. The time lag between variations of Pc1 wave power and the IPA luminosity suggests that the source regions of IPA are distributed near the magnetic equator, suggesting an EMIC wave‐energetic (a few tens of keV) proton or relativistic (MeV or sub‐MeV) electron interaction. The generation mechanism of this 1 Hz luminous modulation remains an open issue, but this study supports the importance of nonlinear pitch angle scattering via wave‐particle interactions.

Abstract. We performed 100 fps stereoscopic imaging of aurora for the first time. Two identical sCMOS cameras equipped with narrow field-of-view lenses (15° by 15°) were directed at magnetic zenith with the north–south base distance of 8.1 km. Here we show the best example that a rapidly pulsating diffuse patch and a streaming discrete arc were observed at the same time with different parallaxes, and the emission altitudes were estimated as 85–95 km and > 100 km, respectively. The estimated emission altitudes are consistent with those estimated in previous studies, and it is suggested that high-speed stereoscopy is useful to directly measure the emission altitudes of various types of rapidly varying aurora. It is also found that variation of emission altitude is gradual (e.g., 10 km increase over 5 s) for pulsating patches and is fast (e.g., 10 km increase within 0.5 s) for streaming arcs.

Transient mesospheric echo in the VHF range was detected at an altitude of 65-70 km during the auroral breakup that occurred from 2220 to 2226 UT on June 30, 2017. During this event, the footprint of the Arase satellite was located within the field of view of the all-sky imagers at Syowa Station in the Antarctic. Auroral observations at Syowa Station revealed the dominant precipitation of relatively soft electrons during the auroral breakup. A corresponding spike in cosmic noise absorption was also observed at Syowa Station, while the Arase satellite observed a flux enhancement of > 100 keV electrons and a broadband noise without detecting chorus waves or electromagnetic ion cyclotron waves. A general-purpose Monte Carlo particle transport simulation code was used to quantitatively evaluate the ionization in the middle atmosphere. Results of this study indicate that the precipitation of energetic electrons of > 100 keV, rather than X-rays from the auroral electrons, played a dominant role in the transient and deep (65-70 km) mesospheric ionization during the observed auroral breakup.

Electromagnetic ion cyclotron (EMIC) waves, one of the possible origins of flickering aurora, have been thought to modulate the electron flux at a few thousand kilometers. In fact, flickering aurora with a frequency range of 3–15 Hz has often been identified by ground‐based optical observations and has been interpreted to be caused by O+‐band EMIC waves. However, extant research to date has not identified possible signatures of H+‐band EMIC waves due to technical limitations of ground‐based high‐speed imagers. The present study shows the first evidence that patchy flickering aurora could be modulated by H+‐band EMIC waves, based on the data obtained from imaging observations at 160 frames per second. The sporadic appearance of the flickering aurora in the frequency range of 50–80 Hz coexisted with typical flickering auroras of approximately 10 Hz. These results are consistent with the hypothesis that flickering auroras are generated by multi‐ion EMIC waves.