Nature of sudden auroral activations at the beginning of magnetic storms

Certain large magnetic lays, registered by magnetometers in the auroral and subauroral zones simultaneously with SC instant and accompanying events, substantially differ from activations at the beginning of auroral substorm. Such basic substorm elements as energy accumulation during the growth phase and breakup—activation in the localized region near midnight—are absent. During such sudden auroral activations (SAs), a disturbance begins in a wide sector of longitudes and latitudes. It is proposed to combine SAs into an individual class of magnetospheric disturbances. The particle acceleration and injection mechanism, which causes SAs, is considered.