Flow burst events with a dawn-to-dusk electric field exceeding 2 mV/m and with a duration of less than 10 min observed by Geotail are compared with auroral data from the Polar ultraviolet imager. Temporal and spatial relationships between the flow bursts and the aurora are examined. It is shown that all the flow bursts correspond either to a localized auroral intensification associated with small poleward expansions and pseudobreakups or to activations starting at poleward edge of the expanded auroral oval, including auroral streamers, that develop equatorward toward the foot point of the satellite. Although most of these auroral activations precede the flow bursts by a few minutes, the activations that break up near the foot point of the satellite start within +/-1 min of the flow burst onset.