Dynamical auroral morphology in relation to ionospheric plasma convection and geomagnetic activity: Signatures of magnetopause X line dynamics and flux transfer events

Abstract. We examine the large-scale ultraviolet aurora and convection responses to a series of flux transfer events that immediately followed a sharp and isolated southward turning of the IMF. During the interval of interest, SuperDARN was monitoring the plasma convection in the dayside northern ionosphere, while the VIS Earth Camera and the Far Ul-traviolet Imager (UVI) were monitoring the northern hemisphere’s ultraviolet aurora. Reconnection signatures were seen in the SuperDARN HF radar data in the postnoon sector following a sharp southward turning of the IMF. The presence of flux transfer events is supported by measurements of a classic dispersed ion signature in the low-altitude cusp from the DMSP spacecraft. Subsequent to the onset of reconnection, the postnoon convection and ultraviolet aurora expanded in concert, reaching 18 MLT in half an hour. The auroral oval was found to move equatorward at the convection speed in the 16–18 MLT sector, implying that it was related directly to an adiaroic magnetospheric boundary. In the present study, we have estimated the field-aligned current response to magnetic reconnection in terms of the vorticity of the ionospheric plasma convection velocity. The convection velocities were obtained using two methods: (a) direct reconstruction of the full vector velocities from bistatic measurements of the convection by the SuperDARN HF radars in a relatively small region of the auroral zone, and (b) from global-scale spherical harmonic fits to the SuperDARN velocities deduced from the map potential model. Regions of high vorticity, which were predicted to be an estimate of a component of the total field-aligned current, agree extremely well with the images of the dayside UV aurora, indicating that, in this case, the plasma vorticity is an excellent estimator of the morphology of dayside field-aligned currents (FACs). The morphology of the aurora and ionospheric electric field in the postnoon sector supports the existence of a dayside current wedge induced in response to dayside reconnection.Key words. Magnetospheric physics (auroral phenomena; magnetosphere-ionosphere interactions; solar wind magne-tosphere interactions)

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Coordinated interhemispheric SuperDARN radar observations of the ionospheric response to flux transfer events observed by the Cluster spacecraft at the high-latitude magnetopause

Annales Geophysicae ◽

10.5194/angeo-21-1807-2003 ◽

2003 ◽

Vol 21 (8) ◽

pp. 1807-1826 ◽

Cited By ~ 26

Author(s):

J. A. Wild ◽

S. E. Milan ◽

S. W. H. Cowley ◽

M. W. Dunlop ◽

C. J. Owen ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Magnetic Field ◽

High Latitude ◽

Small Scale ◽

Plasma Convection ◽

Flux Transfer Events ◽

Ionosphere Plasma ◽

Flow Disturbances ◽

Magnetospheric Configuration And Dynamics ◽

High Latitude Ionosphere ◽

Flux Transfer

Abstract. At 10:00 UT on 14 February 2001, the quartet of ESA Cluster spacecraft were approaching the Northern Hemisphere high-latitude magnetopause in the post-noon sector on an outbound trajectory. At this time, the interplanetary magnetic field incident upon the dayside magnetopause was oriented southward and duskward (BZ negative, BY positive), having turned from a northward orientation just over 1 hour earlier. As they neared the magnetopause the magnetic field, electron, and ion sensors on board the Cluster spacecraft observed characteristic field and particle signatures of magnetospheric flux transfer events (FTEs). Following the traversal of a boundary layer and the magnetopause, the spacecraft went on to observe further signatures of FTEs in the magnetosheath. During this interval of ongoing pulsed reconnection at the high-latitude post-noon magnetopause, the footprints of the Cluster spacecraft were located in the fields-of-view of the SuperDARN Finland and Syowa East radars located in the Northern and Southern Hemispheres, respectively. This study extends upon the initial survey of Wild et al. (2001) by comparing for the first time in situ magnetic field and plasma signatures of FTEs (here observed by the Cluster 1 spacecraft) with the simultaneous flow modulations in the conjugate ionospheres in the two hemispheres. During the period under scrutiny, the flow disturbances in the conjugate ionospheres are manifest as classic "pulsed ionospheric flows" (PIFs) and "poleward moving radar auroral forms" (PMRAFs). We demonstrate that the ionospheric flows excited in response to FTEs at the magnetopause are not those expected for a spatially limited reconnection region, somewhere in the vicinity of the Cluster 1 spacecraft. By examining the large- and small-scale flows in the high-latitude ionosphere, and the inter-hemispheric correspondence exhibited during this interval, we conclude that the reconnection processes that result in the generation of PIFs/PMRAFs must extend over many (at least 4) hours of magnetic local time on the pre- and post-noon magnetopause.Key words. Ionosphere (plasma convection) – Magnetospheric physics (magnetosphere-ionosphere interactions; magnetospheric configuration and dynamics)

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