Observations of Global and Meso- Scales Coupling Dynamics from the IMAGE 
Satellite and from Ground

S.B. Mende, H.U. Frey, and T.J. Immel


High latitude aurora can be interpreted to represent the foot-print of processes
coupling the solar wind, magnetosphere and the ionosphere.  The global
morphology of these processes has been studied by the IMAGE satellite FUV
imagers, which provide global images of the auroral regions with spatial
resolution of about 100 km.  Dynamics of global processes were interpreted in
terms of these and larger spatial scales.  Ground based observers record the
same phenomena with a much finer spatial scale being able to resolve down to one
km.  South Pole Station in Antarctica is located in the orbit plane of the IMAGE
satellite and therefore permits the simultaneous observation of the same auroras
on the two spatial scales in every orbit. We will discuss the dynamics of the
aurora as viewed from both vantage points and highlight the dependence of the
observed temporal dynamics on the spatial resolution scale of the observations.

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Global Aspects of Magnetosphere-Ionosphere Coupling, 2006 Yosemite Workshop, 
Yosemite National Park, CA, USA, 7-10 February 2006