Satellite observations of banded VLF emissions in conjunction with energy-banded ions during very large geomagnetic storms

Electromagnetic VLF emissions banded in frequency, coincident with warm energy-banded ions in the low latitude auroral zone, and associated with very strong geomagnetic storms, are observed separately on two low-earth polar orbiting satellites, FAST and DEMETER. Both satellites carry a full complement of field and particle detectors. The FAST satellite, launched August 21, 1996 into an elliptical polar orbit with perigee 350 km and apogee 4175 km, traversed the auroral zone four times per orbit across a wide range of altitudes and local times. The DEMETER satellite was launched on June 29, 2004 into a circular sun-synchronous polar orbit at altitude 710 km, with data recorded at all invariant latitudes less than ~65 degrees. The ion bands were first reported in association with the Halloween storms [Cattell et al., 2004; Kozyra et al., 2004, Yao et al., 2008]. Banded ions are observed on FAST during every large magnetic storm in discrete energy bands at energies ~10 eV - 10 keV and lasting up to 12 hrs. The energy flux peaks in the trapped population but is also evident in the precipitating ions, and in certain cases a significant upgoing ion component appears at low invariant latitudes. These bands were observed over several orbits at similar latitudes in both dawn and evening sectors, with the signature typically more pronounced in the dawn sector. In this study we focus on the coincidence of the energy-banded ions with observations of frequency-banded VLF electromagnetic emissions. During all of these very large storms, banded VLF emissions are evident in both the electric and magnetic field, appearing as discrete frequency bands between ~100 and ~1500 Hz separated by 75-150 Hz. These banded emissions persist for several FAST or DEMETER orbits, lasting up to 10 hrs, in both the northern and southern hemispheres. There appears to be a correlation between the banded wave observations and ion and electron density enhancements. Possible generation mechanisms for the banded emissions include EMIC waves generated in the equatorial ring current region which bounce to higher L-shells and propagate down auroral field lines to the spacecraft location.