<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE article PUBLIC "-//NLM//DTD Journal Publishing DTD v3.0 20080202//EN" "https://jats.nlm.nih.gov/nlm-dtd/publishing/3.0/journalpublishing3.dtd">
<article xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" article-type="research-article" specific-use="SMUR" dtd-version="3.0" xml:lang="en">
<front>
<journal-meta>
<journal-id journal-id-type="publisher">EGUsphere</journal-id>
<journal-title-group>
<journal-title>EGUsphere</journal-title>
<abbrev-journal-title abbrev-type="publisher">EGUsphere</abbrev-journal-title>
<abbrev-journal-title abbrev-type="nlm-ta">EGUsphere</abbrev-journal-title>
</journal-title-group>
<issn pub-type="epub"></issn>
<publisher><publisher-name>Copernicus Publications</publisher-name>
<publisher-loc>Göttingen, Germany</publisher-loc>
</publisher>
</journal-meta>
<article-meta>
<article-id pub-id-type="doi">10.5194/egusphere-2026-2126</article-id>
<title-group>
<article-title>Estimating the source altitude of auroral precipitation from dispersed Alfv&amp;eacute;n waves in the dayside ionosphere</article-title>
</title-group>
<contrib-group><contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Gavazzi</surname>
<given-names>Etienne</given-names>
<ext-link>https://orcid.org/0009-0005-2427-1715</ext-link>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff1">
<sup>1</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Spicher</surname>
<given-names>Andres</given-names>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff1">
<sup>1</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Gustavsson</surname>
<given-names>Björn</given-names>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff1">
<sup>1</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Vierinen</surname>
<given-names>Juha</given-names>
<ext-link>https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7651-708X</ext-link>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff1">
<sup>1</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Clemmons</surname>
<given-names>James</given-names>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff2">
<sup>2</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Pfaff</surname>
<given-names>Robert</given-names>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff3">
<sup>3</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Rowland</surname>
<given-names>Douglas</given-names>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff3">
<sup>3</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
</contrib-group><aff id="aff1">
<label>1</label>
<addr-line>Department of Physics and Technology, UiT The Arctic University of Norway, Tromsø, Norway</addr-line>
</aff>
<aff id="aff2">
<label>2</label>
<addr-line>Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of New Hampshire, Durham, NH, USA</addr-line>
</aff>
<aff id="aff3">
<label>3</label>
<addr-line>NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD, United States</addr-line>
</aff>
<pub-date pub-type="epub">
<day>08</day>
<month>05</month>
<year>2026</year>
</pub-date>
<volume>2026</volume>
<fpage>1</fpage>
<lpage>25</lpage>
<permissions>
<copyright-statement>Copyright: &#x000a9; 2026 Etienne Gavazzi et al.</copyright-statement>
<copyright-year>2026</copyright-year>
<license license-type="open-access">
<license-p>This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. To view a copy of this licence, visit <ext-link ext-link-type="uri"  xlink:href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/</ext-link></license-p>
</license>
</permissions>
<self-uri xlink:href="https://egusphere.copernicus.org/preprints/2026/egusphere-2026-2126/">This article is available from https://egusphere.copernicus.org/preprints/2026/egusphere-2026-2126/</self-uri>
<self-uri xlink:href="https://egusphere.copernicus.org/preprints/2026/egusphere-2026-2126/egusphere-2026-2126.pdf">The full text article is available as a PDF file from https://egusphere.copernicus.org/preprints/2026/egusphere-2026-2126/egusphere-2026-2126.pdf</self-uri>
<abstract>
<p>The VISIONS-2 sounding rockets performed in-situ measurements of the active dayside auroral region. Numerous broadband dispersed signatures up to keV energies are visible in the electron electrostatic analyser data, typical of Alfv&amp;eacute;nic precipitation. In order to characterize the region where the particle are accelerated, we estimate source altitudes based on different fits of the observed energy&amp;ndash;time dispersions. Additionally, a method based on pitch-angle&amp;ndash;time dispersions is developed, which allows relaxing the assumption of simultaneous injection at all distances. Both approaches are found to yield similar source altitudes. For most of the analysed dispersed precipitation structures, these are found to lie between 1,000 and 3,000 km, and increase in height for larger electron energies. Further, variations are observed across events, suggesting different conditions in the acceleration region. Finally, a comparison with previous observational studies and theoretical predictions is performed, and our estimated source altitudes are found to be generally consistent with some of the inertial Alfv&amp;eacute;n wave velocity profiles, especially those related to lower plasma densities environments. Overall, the results presented here provide further detail about the Alfv&amp;eacute;nic auroral acceleration region on the dayside. The developed method also opens the possibility of inferring the plasma density profiles and essential wave parameters above the spacecraft.</p>
</abstract>
<counts><page-count count="25"/></counts>
<funding-group>
<award-group id="gs1">
<funding-source>Norges Forskningsråd</funding-source>
<award-id>350179</award-id>
<award-id>326039</award-id>
</award-group>
</funding-group>
</article-meta>
</front>
<body/>
<back>
</back>
</article>