Inverse cascade in the structure of substorm aurora and non-linear dynamics of field-aligned current filaments

Abstract. We investigate time evolution of scaling index α_A that characterizes auroral luminosity fluctuations at the beginning of substorm expansion. With the use of UVI images from the Polar satellite, it is shown that α_A typically varies from values less than unity to ~1.5, increasing with breakup progress. Similar scaling features were previously reported for fluctuations at smaller scales from all-sky TV observations. If this signature is interpreted in terms of non-linear interactions between scales, it means that the power of small-scale fluctuations is transferred with time to larger scales, a kind of the inverse cascade. Scaling behavior in the aurora during substorm activity is compared with that in the field-aligned currents simulated numerically in the model of non-linear interactions of Alfvénic coherent structures, according to the Chang et al. (2004) scenario. This scenario also suggests an inverse cascade, manifesting in clustering of small-scale field-aligned current filaments of the same polarity and formation of "coarse-grained" structures of field-aligned currents.