The Magnetospheric Source Region of the Bright Proton Aurora

Abstract The bright proton aurora is generally understood to be the projection of the Central Plasma Sheet where there is sufficient particle energy to cause auroral luminosity and strong pitch angle scattering (presumably due to field line curvature). This region is often interpreted as the transition region between dipolar and tail‐like magnetic topologies. The location of auroral features relative to the peak in the proton aurora has been used, for example, to argue that the substorm onset arc lies on field lines that thread this transition region. In this paper, we present statistics of proton aurora luminosity computed from Time History of Events and Macroscale Interactions in Substorms electrostatic analyzer measurements for various radial distances in the magnetotail. These results are compared to ground observations of proton auroral luminosity and used to derive a statistical source region of the bright proton aurora. Key Points There is a direct quantitative relationship between downgoing ion energy flux and the luminosity of the proton aurora The magnetospheric source of the bright proton aurora lies between 6 and 10  R E downtail