GROUND-BASED OPTICAL MEASUREMENTS OF DAYTIME AURORAL EMISSIONS - A NEW MEANS OF INVESTIGATING SPACE-WEATHER RELATED PROCESSES

The first optical signatures of plasmapause associated processes were gleaned from the daytime amoral emissions monitored from Maitri, the I ndian station in Antarctica, using the newly built, ground-based, Mult iwavelength Daytime Photometer (MWDPM). The plasmapause boundary infer red from these measurements conforms well with the known empirical rel ationship with the geomagnetic index K-p. The measurements made at 391 .4, 486.1, 557.7 and 630.0 nm emissions revealed significant day-to-da y variations in their spatial and temporal extents. These preliminary results are presented and discussed.