[en] On four rocket flights, ULF electric fields were observed in the nighttime auroral oval and in the polar cleft. They had periods between 0.5 and 3 sec, amplitudes from 2 to 30 mV/m, and exhibited left- and right-hand elliptical polarization. Intensifications of these fields often coincided with bursts of energetic electron precipitation which were on occasion modulated with nearly the same period as the fields. The events in the auroral oval were associated with substorms and visual auroral activity. The spectral and polarization properties of the ULF fields suggest that they represented the electric components of Pcl or Pil micropulsations. To model these waves and the concurrent electron flux variations, different mechanisms for wave excitation, electron acceleration, and wave-particle interaction are considered. One likely interpretation attributes the micropulsations to Birkeland current chopping by an unstable double layer located at approximately equal to 1 R(sub)E altitude. It is suggested that the double layer also accelerates the observed electrons, the electron flux variations being due either to the intrinsic variations of the double layer or to its interaction with the micropulsations. Due to the sparcity of parameters measured so far, the models are provisional. A follow-up experiment is proposed to further investigate the problem. (author)