Peculiarities of the azimuthal propagation of perturbations in discrete auroral arcs during the substorm growth phase

Abstract

The azimuthal propagation of luminosity inhomogeneities (of the bead type) within auroral arcs extended from east (E) to west (W) during the substorm growth phase is studied with high-precision groundbased optical observations at PGI observatories and THEMIS Canadian ground stations. The propagation velocities and directions are compared with the predictions of the known theories that were proposed in order to interpret this phenomenon. It is concluded that there is no unified theory capable of explaining the disturbance propagation peculiarities observed in different events.