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arXiv · 2606.26854

Excursion-set structure factor of the auroral electric field

Magnus F Ivarsen·Kaili Song·Jean-Pierre St-Maurice·Glenn C Hussey
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Abstract

We treat coherent radar echoes from aurorae as a finite point process and measure its structure factor $S(k)$ from pairwise echo separations. Backscatter requires electron drifts to exceed the ion-acoustic speed, making the echoes a threshold (excursion-set) sample of the ionospheric electric field, and $|S-1|$ is that field's spectrum, to leading order. We test this against in-situ observations: in co-moving frames, the radar spectrum is scale-free with a spectral index near -5/3, matching the in-situ indices. The auroral electric field is thus imaged by its excursion set, a point process of Farley-Buneman threshold exceedances.

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Magnus F Ivarsen, Kaili Song, Jean-Pierre St-Maurice, Glenn C Hussey. 2026-06-25. Excursion-set structure factor of the auroral electric field. https://arxiv.org/abs/2606.26854

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