Interhemispheric observations of field line resonance frequencies as a continuous function of ground latitude in the auroral zones

In the austral summer of 2006-2007, the 48th Japanese Antarctic Research Expedition (JARE-48) installed two unmanned low-power magnetometers to form a closely spaced magnetometer network in combination with the permanent sites at Japan's Syowa Station in Antarctica. To identify field line resonances (FLRs), gradient methods are applied to the data from three adjacent sites in Antarctica and data from conjugate points in Antarctica and Iceland. By analyzing the data from the Antarctic and Icelandic sites individually, the structure of FLRs with high coherence is clearly identified. However, by analyzing the data from closely spaced Antarctic sites, it is more difficult to identify the signature of FLRs because of the inclusion of multiple signals related to the local geomagnetic pulsations over a broad frequency range. The frequency and resonance width of FLRs are determined by applying the amplitude phase gradient method (APGM) to the data from Antarctic sites. This yields the eigenfrequency as a continuous function of ground latitudes in the area surrounding Syowa Station. The mass density in the equatorial region at the L of the auroral zones is estimated from the obtained FLR frequency by numerically solving the standing Alfvén wave equation. The mass density thus obtained is consistent with observational results from previous in situ measurements by spacecraft. The results of the present study demonstrate that data from geomagnetic conjugate points are helpful in identifying FLR in cases in which the magnetometers are too close to each other to enable identification. Once FLR is identified, APGM can be applied to the identified FLR, yielding the FLR frequency as a continuous function of ground latitudes. Therefore, the magnetospheric equatorial mass density is readily estimated with high spatial resolution.