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Abstract Auroral roar originates in Earth's ionosphere at altitudes of several hundred kilometers where the upper hybrid frequency matches a harmonic of the electron gyrofrequency. These radio emissions are important for remote sensing of ionospheric plasma conditions and processes, and their physics is similar to that of astrophysical radio emissions. In this study, direction finding was used to establish the distribution of direction of arrival (DOA) angles for the third harmonic emissions and to compare the direction angles of second harmonic and events when they occur simultaneously. Data were collected for 42 events from 9 May 2022 to 20 May 2023 by a three antenna array in Toolik Lake, AK (68.6°N, 149.6°W, 68.5° magnetic latitude) with a DOA distribution centered overhead. 30% of the events coming from the south, for which azimuth deviations due to refraction are less significant, were on the same azimuth within 10°, the uncertainty of the measurement. This is a lower bound on the fraction of simultaneous harmonic and emissions that come from the same auroral arc. All events coming from the south that had a and azimuth angle of arrival within 10° had a higher elevation than elevation within experimental uncertainty, supporting the mechanism by which these emissions are excited at the “double resonance” points on the bottomside of the ionosphere. 

There is mounting evidence of a component of terrestrial auroral kilometric radiation (AKR) that is converted to whistler mode and radiated downward toward the planet, observable even at ground level. Three years of data from South Pole Station in 2018-2020 provide statistics of characteristics of leaked AKR at ground level. The events occur in an approximately 90--day interval around winter solstice, apparently requiring darkness in the ionosphere to be observed at ground level. They favor pre--midnight/midnight magnetic local times, which is consistent with the connection of AKR, observed in space, to auroral substorms. The frequency distribution of ground{level AKR is truncated compared to that observed in space, with primarily the higher end of the frequency range being observed, 400--600 kHz, corresponding to the low altitude range of source heights, 2500-3500 km, assuming generation at the electron cyclotron frequency. Approximately half of the events have maximum radiance exceeding 1.5×10^18 W/m2/Hz, with the strongest events exceeding 10^16 W/m2/Hz; these intensities are up to two orders of magnitude lower than those observed in the ionosphere, suggesting that most of the leaked AKR is at large wave normal angles that cannot penetrate the Earth{ionosphere boundary. 

Abstract Many phenomena in the high‐frequency pumped ionosphere exhibit dependence on the pump beam incident angleα. This motivates a systematic study of theαdependence of the stimulated electromagnetic emission (SEE), particularly near electron gyroharmonics. We report the first observations of stationary SEE spectra forαranging from −28° (north) to 28° (south) at three receiving sites, for the pump frequency (f₀) sweeping near the fourth gyroharmonic (4f_c). The following is established: (i) For pumping near the magnetic zenith (α= 7°, 14°, 21°), when existent dynamic broad upshifted maximum in the SEE spectrum indicates that artificial ionization layers are excited, suppression of the downshifted maximum atf₀≈ 4f_сis weakest, and 4f_сincreases. (ii) Weaker similar effects occur forα= −14° (a condition called “mirror magnetic zenith”). (iii) For northern pump beam inclinations, the SEE intensity decreases (in comparison with southern inclinations and vertical), most strongly at the southernmost receiving site.