Motoharu Nowada

and 6 more

Based on a large database of Wideband Imaging Camera (WIC), which is a part of Far Ultraviolet (FUV) instrument, onboard the Imager for Magnetopause-to-Aurora Global Exploration (IMAGE) satellite during 5 years between 2000 and 2005, we found a new morphological type of transpolar arcs (TPAs), which are identified as “nightside distorted TPAs”. The nightside ends of the dawnside (duskside) TPAs got distorted toward pre- (post-) midnight sector; These TPAs look like the shape of an alphabetical letter of “J” or “L”. We identified 17 nightside distorted TPAs from our database. The 12 events out of 17 nightside distorted TPA events were the dawnside TPA with the nightside end distorted toward the pre-midnight sector (“J”-shaped TPA), and the TPAs in the duskside, whose nightside parts got distorted toward the post-midnight sector, were found in the remnant 5 events (“L”-shaped TPA). Statistically, the nightside distorted TPAs can dominantly be found under the northward Interplanetary Magnetic Field (IMF) conditions. Furthermore, when the IMF-By component pointed to the dawnward (duskward) direction, the “J” (“L”)-shaped TPAs were dominantly observed, suggesting that the relation between the IMF-Bz and By orientations, and the locations of the nightside distorted TPAs is consistent with that between the IMF conditions and regular TPA previously reported. We also followed the time sequence of the nightside distorted TPA evolution with the IMAGE FUV-WIC imager and additional Polar UVI data. In most cases, the “J” and “L”-shaped TPAs started to grow from the nightside main auroral oval, and protruded to the dayside region with being distorted. In this presentation, we will introduce several selected cases of the nightside distorted TPA among our database, and discuss why and how the nightside end of the TPA became distorted toward pre- or post-midnight sectors based on the in-situ satellite nightside plasma sheet observations and the electron drift velocity distribution calculated utilizing a simple electromagnetic field model in magnetotail, together with the auroral imager data.