Modes of high-latitude auroral conductance variability derived from DMSP energetic electron precipitation observations: Empirical orthogonal function analysis

These are derived from six satellite years of Defense Meteorological Satellite Program (DMSP) particle data acquired during the rise of solar cycles 22 and 24. The 60 million DMSP spectra were each processed through the Global Airlglow Model.

Ours is the first large-scale analysis of ionospheric conductances completely free of assumption of the incident electron energy spectra. We show that the mean patterns and first four EOFs capture ∼50.1 and 52.9% of the total Pedersen and Hall conductance variabilities, respectively. The mean patterns and first EOFs are consistent with typical diffuse auroral oval structures and quiet time strengthening/weakening of the mean pattern.