Persistence of Auroral Electron Flux Events from DMSP/F9 Electron Measurements

The persistence of auroral electron activity is examined and correlated to the geomagnetic activity, which is measured by the Kp index. To study this correlation the superposed epoch analysis technique was implemented. Epoch zero is the time at which Kp values persisted above a specified threshold value for a specified duration. It was found that a high correlation between enhanced Kp and the number of bright arcs can be achieved for a limited time. The waiting time to increase the chance of observing bright auroral arcs after enhanced Kp values are observed should be between 3 to 6 hours. Further, the substantial increase in the number of observations of intense events as a result of enhanced Kp lingers a maximum of 36 to 48 hours. After this time period, this number drops to the average number of random observations.