On possibility of coupling of satellite and ground-based optical measurements in a pulsating aurora region

The paper discusses a possibility of detailed comparison between CLUSTER data and data on pulsating spots recorded by the TV camera at Lovozero Observatory when the satellite was flying through the magnetospheric region associated with the camera's field of view. Ionospheric projections of the satellite are calculated using T89, T96, and T01 models. It is shown that when one does know only a geomagnetic activity level and interplanetary medium characteristics, the projection provides a certain insight only into whether the satellite will get into the pulsating aurora region or not. The spread in the projection in various models is not less than sizes of pulsating spots and can reach 100 km. The satellite flight time corresponding to this distance is ~4 min. Such a large spatial and time uncertainty does not allow a detailed comparison between satellite and ground-based measurements to be made without a priori information on, say, the character of precipitations over a spot, as was done by other authors in case of auroral arcs. The situation becomes still more complicated if the satellite is in the region of highly-extended magnetic field lines.