Topside optical view of the dayside cleft aurora
Photometers on the ISIS-II spacecraft provide a view of the atomic oxygen 5577-A and 6300-A emissions and the N2(+) 3914-A emission detected as dayside aurora in the magnetospheric cleft region. The 6300-A emission forms a continuous and permanent band across the noon sector, at about 78 deg invariant latitude, with a defined region of maximum intensity that is never less than 2 kR (uncorrected for albedo) and is centered near magnetic noon. There are significant differences in the intensity patterns on either side of noon and their responses to geomagnetic activity. Discrete 3914-A auroral forms appear within this region at preferred locations that cannot be precisely specified but which tend to the poleward edge of the 6300-A emission in the evening and the equatorward edge in the morning, where the difference between the two emissions is greatest. It is concluded that the discrete auroras observed by all-sky cameras in the day sector follow the 6300-A emission through the cleft region, though a definite cleft boundary is not defined.