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During a large geomagnetic storm, the electric field from the polar ionosphere can expand far enough to affect the mid-latitude and equatorial electric fields. These changes in the equatorial zonal electric field, called the penetration field, will cause changes in the meridional ion flows that can be observed by radars and spacecraft. In general this E × B ion flow near the equator caused by the penetration field during undershielding conditions will be upward on the dayside and downward on the nightside of the Earth. Previous analysis of the equatorial meridional flows observed by CINDI instrument on the C/NOFS spacecraft during the 26 September 2011 storm showed that all of the response flows on the dayside were excess downward flows instead of the expected upward flows. These observed storm-time responses are compared to a prediction from a physics-based coupled model of thermosphere–ionosphere–inner-magnetosphere in an effort to explain these observations. The model results suggest that the equatorial downward flow could be attributed to a combined effect of the overshielding and disturbance dynamo processes. However, some discrepancy between the model and observation indicates a need for improving our understanding of how sensitive the equatorial electric field is to various model input parameters that describe the magnetosphere–ionosphere coupling processes.

The Ion Velocity Meter (IVM), a part of the Coupled Ion Neutral Dynamic Investigation (CINDI) instrument package on the Communication/Navigation Outage Forecast System (C/NOFS) spacecraft, has made over 5 yr of in situ measurements of plasma temperatures, composition, densities, and velocities in the 400–850 km altitude range of the equatorial ionosphere. These measured ion velocities are then transformed into a coordinate system with components parallel and perpendicular to the geomagnetic field allowing us to examine the zonal (horizontal and perpendicular to the geomagnetic field) component of plasma motion over the 2009–2012 interval. The general pattern of local time variation of the equatorial zonal ion velocity is well established as westward during the day and eastward during the night, with the larger nighttime velocities leading to a net ionospheric superrotation. Since the C/NOFS launch in April 2008, F10.7 cm radio fluxes have gradually increased from around 70 sfu to levels in the 130–150 sfu range. The comprehensive coverage of C/NOFS over the low-latitude ionosphere allows us to examine variations of the topside zonal ion velocity over a wide level of solar activity as well as the dependence of the zonal velocity on apex altitude (magnetic latitude), longitude, and solar local time. It was found that the zonal ion drifts show longitude dependence with the largest net eastward values in the American sector. The pre-midnight zonal drifts show definite solar activity (F10.7) dependence. The daytime drifts have a lower dependence on F10.7. The apex altitude (magnetic latitude) variations indicate a more westerly flow at higher altitudes. There is often a net topside subrotation at low F10.7 levels, perhaps indicative of a suppressed F region dynamo due to low field line-integrated conductivity and a low F region altitude at solar minimum.

The newly installed SuperDARN Hokkaido HF radar monitors ionospheric plasma flow between magnetic latitudes of 45° and 65° and thus has a great potential for studies of subauroral polarization streams (SAPS) in combination with another SuperDARN radar located at King Salmon, Alaska as well as the DMSP satellites and ground-based instruments in the Alaskan sector of the Arctic. Preliminary survey shows that although SAPS are often detected with the Hokkaido radar, their velocities are rather low, to the order of 150 m/s in its most suitable central beams. In this study, observations of unusually fast Hokkaido flows of up to 800 m/s are presented. The event of 1 April 2007 is investigated in detail. It is shown that high-velocity echoes appear after substorm onsets over North America with a delay of ~30 min. In terms of latitude, the velocity peaks just outside the auroral oval; signatures of a detached polarization jet are occasional and not pronounced. The King Salmon radar operating concurrently detects SAPS signatures as well but at different times and locations. Simulation with the Comprehensive Ring Current Model for the 1 April event reasonably identifies the period of fast flow occurrence but the velocity is underestimated. The event studied suggests that substorm-injected particle populations may intensify the pre-existing SAPS flow and lead to a mismatch of the predictions and observations.

The two-cell aurora is characterized by azimuthally elongated regions of enhanced auroral brightness over extended local times in the dawn and dusk sectors. Its association with the convection, particle precipitation, and field-aligned currents under various phases of substorms has not been fully understood. With Polar Ultraviolet Imager auroral images in conjunction with Defense Meteorological Satellite Program (DMSP) F12 spacecraft on the dusk-side branch of the two-cell aurora, we are able to investigate an association of the auroral emissions with the electric fields, field-aligned currents, and energy flux of electrons. Results show that the substorm expansion onset does not significantly change the orientation of the dusk-side branch of the two-cell aurora. Also, the orientation of the magnetic deflection vector produced by the region1 field-aligned current changed from 73±1° to the DMSP trajectory during the substorm growth phase, to 44±6° to the DMSP trajectory during the substorm expansion phase. With a comparison between the orientation of the dusk-side branch of the two-cell aurora and the orientation of the magnetic deflection vector, it is found that the angular difference between the two orientations is 28±5° during the substorm growth phase, and 13±6° during the substorm expansion phase.

Cross-track ion drifts measured by the DMSP satellites are compared with line-of-sight SuperDARN HF velocities in approximately the same directions. Good overall agreement is found for a data set comprising of 209 satellite passes over the field of view of nine SuperDARN radars in both the Northern and Southern Hemispheres. The slope of the best linear fit line relating the SuperDARN and DMSP velocities is of the order of 0.7 with a tendency for SuperDARN velocities to be smaller. The agreement implies that the satellite and radar data can be merged into a common set provided that spatial and temporal variations of the velocity as measured by both instruments are smooth. Keywords. Ionosphere (Ionospheric irregularities; Plasma convection; Auroral ionosphere)

During the long-duration steady convection activity on 11 December 1998, the development of a few dozen auroral streamers was monitored by Polar UVI instrument in the dark northern nightside ionosphere. On many occasions the DMSP spacecraft crossed the streamer-conjugate regions over the sunlit southern auroral oval, permitting the investigation of the characteristics of ion and electron precipitation, ionospheric convection and field-aligned currents associated with the streamers. We confirm the conjugacy of streamer-associated precipitation, as well as their association with ionospheric plasma streams having a substantial equatorward convection component. The observations display two basic types of streamer-associated precipitation. In its polewardmost half, the streamer-associated (field-aligned) accelerated electron precipitation coincides with the strong (≥2–7μA/m2) upward field-aligned currents on the westward flank of the convection stream, sometimes accompanied by enhanced proton precipitation in the adjacent region. In the equatorward portion of the streamer, the enhanced precipitation includes both electrons and protons, often without indication of field-aligned acceleration. Most of these characteristics are consistent with the model describing the generation of the streamer by the narrow plasma bubbles (bursty bulk flows) which are contained on dipolarized field lines in the plasma sheet, although the mapping is strongly distorted which makes it difficult to quantitatively interprete the ionospheric image. The convective streams in the ionosphere, when well-resolved, had the maximal convection speeds ∼0.5–1km/s, total field-aligned currents of a few tenths of MA, thicknesses of a few hundreds km and a potential drop of a few kV across the stream. However, this might represent only a small part of the associated flux transport in the equatorial plasma sheet.Key words. Ionosphere (electric fiels and currents). Magnetospheric physics (aurroal phenomena; energetic particles, precipitating)

A -190-nT negative bay in the geomagnetic X component measured at Macquarie Island ( -65° L) showed that an ionospheric substorm occurred during 09:58 to 11:10 UT on 27 February 2000. Signatures of an auroral westward flow channel (AWFC) were observed nearly simultaneously in the backscatter power, LOS Doppler velocity, and Doppler spectral width measured using the Tasman International Geospace Environment Radar (TIGER), a Southern Hemisphere HF SuperDARN radar. Many of the characteristics of the AWFC were similar to those occurring during a polarisation jet (PJ), or subauroral ion drift (SAID) event, and suggest that it may have been a pre-cursor to a fully developed, intense westward flow channel satisfying all of the criteria defining a PJ/SAID. A beam-swinging analysis showed that the westward drifts (poleward electric field) associated with the flow channel were very structured in time and space, but the smoothed velocities grew to ~ 800 ms-1 (47 mVm-1) during the 22-min substorm onset interval 09:56 to 10:18 UT. Maximum west-ward drifts of >1.3 km s-1 (>77 mVm-1) occurred during a ~ 5-min velocity spike, peaking at 10:40 UT during the expansion phase. The drifts decayed rapidly to ~ 300 ms-1 (18 mVm-1) during the 6-min recovery phase interval, 11:04 to 11:10 UT. Overall, the AWFC had a lifetime of 74 min, and was located near -65° L in the evening sector west of the Harang discontinuity. The large westward drifts were confined to a geographic zonal channel of longitudinal ex-tent >20° (>1.3 h magnetic local time), and latitudinal width ~2° L. Using a half-width of ~ 100 km in latitude, the peak electric potential was >7.7 kV. However, a transient velocity of >3.1 km s-1 with potential >18.4 kV was observed further poleward at the end of the recovery phase. Auroral oval boundaries determined using DMSP measurements suggest the main flow channel overlapped the equatorward boundary of the diffuse auroral oval. During the ~ 2-h interval following the flow channel, an ~ 3° L wide band of scatter was observed drifting slowly toward the west, with speeds gradually decaying to ~ 50 ms-1 (3 mVm -1). The scatter was observed extending past the Harang discontinuity, and had Doppler signatures characteristic of the main ionospheric trough, implicating the flow channel in the further depletion of F-region plasma. The character of this scatter was in contrast with the character of the scatter drifting toward the east at higher latitude.Key words. Ionosphere (auroral ionosphere; electric fields and currents; ionosphere-magnetospehere interactions) Magnetospheric physics (storms and substorms)

The response of the dayside ionospheric flow to a sharp change in the direction of the interplanetary magnetic field (IMF) measured by the WIND spacecraft from negative Bz and positive By, to positive Bz and small By, has been studied using SuperDARN radar, DMSP satellite, and ground magnetometer data. In response to the IMF change, the flow underwent a transition from a distorted twin-cell flow involving antisunward flow over the polar cap, to a multi-cell flow involving a region of sunward flow at high latitudes near noon. The radar data have been studied at the highest time resolution available (~2 min) to determine how this transition took place. It is found that the dayside flow responded promptly to the change in the IMF, with changes in radar and magnetic data starting within a few minutes of the estimated time at which the effects could first have reached the dayside ionosphere. The data also indicate that sunward flows appeared promptly at the start of the flow change (within ~2 min), localised initially in a small region near noon at the equatorward edge of the radar backscatter band. Subsequently the region occupied by these flows expanded rapidly east-west and poleward, over intervals of ~7 and ~14 min respectively, to cover a region at least 2 h wide in local time and 5° in latitude, before rapid evolution ceased in the noon sector. In the lower latitude dusk sector the evolution extended for a further ~6 min before quasi-steady conditions again prevailed within the field-of-view. Overall, these observations are shown to be in close conformity with expectations based on prior theoretical discussion, except for the very prompt appearance of sunward flows after the onset of the flow change.Key words. Ionosphere (Auroral ionosphere) · Magnetospheric physics (Magnetopause · cusp · and boundary layers; Magnetosphere · ionosphere interaction)