Black Auroras using Satellites, Night-vision Optics and Radars

Many people are familiar with the auroras (sometimes with green, red and blue colours), but few know about the black auroras that may appear between the white auroras or in a diffuse background in the sky. We observe this phenomenon frequently in the auroral zone, but little is known about them except that they occur after major auroral geomagnetic storms typically after midnight.
This project aims to:
(1) Determine the energy spectrum of precipitating particles inside/outside the black auroras using optical and radar methods, and
(2) Determine the origin of the black auroras in the Earth’s magnetosphere and compare ground-based observations to satellite data.