The auroral signature of Earthward flow bursts observed in the Magnetotail

We present direct evidence that transient Earthward flow bursts in the magn etotail can produce an observable signature in the optical aurora. This sig nature is north-south aligned auroral structures that are extensions of tra nsient intensifications near the poleward boundary of the auroral oval. Our study focuses on the period from 0500 to 0700 UT on January 7, 1997, durin g which five distinct flow bursts are observed in the Geotail data. At that time, the spacecraft was located approximately 30 R-E downtail on field li nes that project down to the CANOPUS array of ground based instruments. We find that each of the flow bursts seen in the Geotail data is associated wi th an auroral poleward boundary intensification (PBI) observed in the CANOP US meridian scanning photometer (MSP) data, which appears as a north-south aligned auroral structure in the CANOPUS all-sky imager (AST) data. Based o n these observations we estimate that the fast flows originated between 50 and 100 R-E downtail.