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[1] We have examined characteristics of the vertical O+ flux in the topside high-latitude ionosphere from measurements of the vertical ion drift and ion number density made by the Defense Meteorological Satellite Program (DMSP) F13 spacecraft from June 1996 to January 1997, June 1998 to January 1999, and June 2001 to January 2002. In the polar cap the vertical ion flux is, on average, downward at all locations. However, in the auroral zone the ion flux is highly structured, and a net upward flux is produced primarily by spatially and temporally confined events containing upward fluxes in excess of 109 cm−2s−1. These dominant high-flux events tend to be produced more commonly by high densities rather than by high velocities. The range of vertical velocity and number density changes with season and solar cycle with greater variability in the vertical velocity occurring during winter and at lower levels of solar activity. There is also evidence that the vertical fluxes are a function of the interplanetary magnetic field, with upward fluxes in the auroral zones for negative Bz and upward fluxes in the polar cap for positive Bz.

[1] The ion drift velocities and electric field derived from the Assimilative Mapping of Ionospheric Electrodynamics technique (AMIE) are compared with the same parameters observed by the Defense Meteorological Satellite Program's (DMSP) Special Sensor-Ions, Electrons, and Scintillation (SSIES) instrument. In addition the along-track cross polar cap potential, the correlation between the curves, and other metrics are compared and those results are binned by various criteria. The criteria include spacecraft, year, season, and magnetic activity level. We observed a reasonable correlation between the AMIE results and DMSP data with respect to the along-track potential, though the AMIE results tend to show a lower potential by some 30-50 percent, depending on spacecraft and orbit. Spacecraft in the same general orbits show similar relations with AMIE, implying that there is good intersatellite calibration for the DMSP array. There is a great deal of variability in the correlation, depending on season and activity level, and correlations with some of the spacecraft show a solar cycle dependance. It is further found that when we set a multifaceted criteria on each orbit for a DMSP-AMIE match, including along-track potential, V y correlation, and peak potential locations, the results correspond between 35% and 55% for the dawn-dusk spacecraft, while they only correspond 7%-12% of the time for noon-midnight satellites.

[1] Magnetic reconnection that involves overdraped lobe field lines is called internal reconnection since it occurs inside the magnetopause. When the interplanetary magnetic field (IMF) is due northward and the Earth's dipole is tilted significantly, internal reconnection occurs in the winter hemisphere, not only between a summer lobe field line and a winter lobe field line but also between a summer lobe field line and a closed field line. The latter internal reconnection drives “reciprocal cells” in the winter ionosphere that circulate exclusively in the closed field line region. The reciprocal cells are intimately related to the lobe cells in the summer ionosphere in that in the steady state, the reconnection voltage associated with merging of IMF and open field lines is equal to the sum of the lobe cell potential and the reciprocal cell potential. In this paper we present observations of convection patterns consistent with those expected for reciprocal cells, using ionospheric radar and low-altitude satellite data. We also show the concurrence of lobe cells and reciprocal cells. The observations of reciprocal cells provide support for the internal reconnection between a summer lobe field line and a closed field line. In addition, we show that equatorward of the polar cap boundary, magnetosheath-like ions are drifting from noon toward the flankside in both hemispheres. We suggest that these ions are of magnetosheath origin and that they entered the closed region of the magnetosphere through the rotational discontinuity associated with internal reconnection. These magnetosheath-like ion observations strongly support the occurrence of internal reconnection.

[1] This paper reports results from a detailed analysis of theta auroras that occurred during the passage of a magnetic cloud on 8 November 2000. The interplanetary magnetic field (IMF) was generally northward for more than 12 hours, while the y-component of the IMF changed signs several times. Auroral images of the Northern Hemisphere acquired from the Ultraviolet Imager (UVI) on board the Polar satellite showed clear development of theta auroras during the prolonged northward IMF period. It is found that the theta aurora can be enhanced by compression of the magnetosphere associated solar wind pressure pulses. We also examine large-scale ionospheric plasma convection flow data from the SuperDARN radar network to study the ionospheric plasma flow pattern associated with the theta aurora. The radar data, when available, showed that two different plasma flows can coexist within the day-night part of the theta aurora. The nightside extension of the theta aurora is always on a region of antisunward convecting flows, whereas there is no consistent flow pattern found in the dayside portion of the theta aurora studied. In general, plasma flow outside the theta aurora cannot be determined because of lack of scattered radar signals, but from a few instances it suggested that the nightside theta aurora is flanked by antisunward flows. In contrast to the prevailing view that theta auroras reside in regions of closed magnetic flux that convect sunward, this study suggests one more aspect of the theta aurora and provides constraints for models and theories.

[1] We present an observational study of the global dynamics of the plasmasphere, aurora, ring current, and subauroral ionosphere on 17 April 2002 during a substorm. Global observations by the Imager for Magnetopause-to-Aurora Global Exploration (IMAGE) and in situ observations by DMSP F13 provide a comprehensive view of the coupled response of the inner magnetosphere and ionosphere. At 1900 UT a substorm onset initiated a sunward convective impulse, which caused a ring current injection. The motion of this impulse past the plasmasphere caused ripples to propagate along the plasmapause, eastward and westward from premidnight magnetic local time (MLT). The motion of the ripples agrees exceptionally well with the motion of the aurora and the ring current, implying strong coupling. The westward moving ripple (on the duskside) participated in a two-phase plasmapause undulation effect. In the first phase (1915 UT to 1936 UT), a mild 0.4–0.5 RE bulge formed near 2000 MLT, probably caused by an E-field induced by local reduction of the magnetic field by the ring current pressure increase. In the second phase (1936 UT to 2037 UT) this mild bulge was removed by a subauroral polarization stream (SAPS) westward flow that stripped away the outer 1 RE of the duskside plasmasphere. The SAPS effect was observed in the ionosphere by DMSP between about 1930 UT and 2000 UT and is evident in vector E-fields inferred from plasmapause motion. All the observations of this event suggest strong coupling among the plasma populations of the magnetosphere-ionosphere system. This event represents the first identification of the directly observed global plasmaspheric effects of a substorm-driven impulse, the SAPS flow channel, and the ring-current magnetic field reduction.

[1] The evolution of the plasmasphere during the moderate 22–23 April 2001 storm is studied by comparing observed plasmasphere behavior to the predictions of a simulation. The plasmasphere observations include global images from IMAGE EUV and density and flow measurements from LANL MPA. The subjective uncertainty in the EUV plasmapause was found to be 0.2L. Inward plasmapause motion was correlated with southward interplanetary magnetic field (IMF), with a 27 min delay. The electric (E) field at the plasmapause was approximately 13% of the solar wind E-field. The observations support the idea that plasmaspheric erosion begins with a partial plasmapause indentation which then gradually widens in magnetic local time (MLT) to encompass the entire nightside. In situ measurements confirm a dayside plume of sunward flowing plasma, and images show that the plume subsequently experienced phases of MLT narrowing and rotation/wrapping. To simulate the event, we employed a test particle representation of the plasmapause using a parametric E-field model that includes corotation and convection from two sources: dayside magnetopause reconnection (DMR) and the subauroral polarization stream (SAPS). The model captures the phases of plume evolution, and it reproduces the observed plasmapause with maximum (mean) error

[1] In this paper, for steady-state northward interplanetary magnetic field (IMF) with ∣BY∣ ∼ BZ, we describe a new merging sequence that results in polar cap bifurcation and accompanying paired “exchange cells” in the ionospheric convection pattern. Although the IMF is northward, it reconnects with the closed geomagnetic field on the dayside high-latitude magnetopause, creating two types of open geomagnetic field lines. For the first type the neutral point and the foot point are in the same hemisphere; for the second type the neutral point and the foot point are in opposite hemispheres. The latter type of field lines slips on the magnetopause in the azimuthal direction opposite to the normal BY- associated flux transport and forms an overdraped tail lobe. The ionospheric signature of this overdraped lobe is the appearance of an open magnetic flux island inside the dawn/dusk plasma sheet (i.e., polar cap bifurcation). For BY > 0 the island emerges in the duskside (dawnside) plasma sheet in the northern (southern) ionosphere and conversely for BY 0 the pair is located in the noon-dusk and midnight-dawn (dawn-noon and dusk-midnight) quadrants of the northern (southern) ionosphere; for BY < 0 a mirror image with respect to the noon-midnight meridian applies to the convection pattern. We demonstrate observational evidence that supports this model.

[1] The ionospheric response to the magnetic storm of 15 July 2000 is investigated using the global total electron content (TEC) maps provided by global positioning system and the measurements of ion density, composition, and drift velocity from the Defense Meteorological Satellite Program (DMSP) F13 and F15 spacecraft. The global TEC maps showed clear seasonal effects that can be characterized by a dominance of a negative ionospheric storm (decrease in plasma density) in the summer (northern) hemisphere and the pronounced positive ionospheric storm (increase in plasma density) in the winter (southern) hemisphere. The northern negative storm phase rapidly expanded to the equator at midnight and even penetrated to the opposite hemisphere during the storm main phase. In the southern hemisphere, the negative storm phase began in the morning sector but was confined to narrow latitude and local time sectors owing to strong poleward winds and ion drag on the dayside. The negative storm phases in the opposite hemispheres kept out of phase, lasted for a day, and corotated with Earth. These characteristics show good qualitative similarity with the predictions of global model simulations. The positive storm phase prevailed in the southern low-middle latitudes and was most pronounced during nighttime. In that region, the quiet time DMSP measurements at 1800 LT, 2100 LT, 0600 LT, and 0900 LT showed low ion density, low O+ proportion, and large downward ion drift velocity compared with those in the northern hemisphere. During storm time the O+ proportion and ion concentration increased to the levels seen in the northern hemisphere while the downward ion drift velocity was much decreased. The excellent temporal and spatial correspondence of the increase in ion concentration with the decrease in downward ion drift velocity indicates that the maintenance of the F layer at high altitudes by the storm-induced equatorward neutral winds was the main driver of the positive ionospheric storm. The quiet time hemispheric asymmetry was most significant at nighttime, and therefore the positive storm effect appeared most pronounced at nighttime in the winter hemisphere.

[1] We have examined the vertical ion flux in the topside high-latitude ionosphere from measurements of the vertical ion drift and ion number density made by the DMSP F13 satellite. We found that the average vertical flux over the entire high-latitude region near 800 km altitude is quite small. This suggests that most of the vertical ion flux is associated with a large-scale “breathing” of the upper ionosphere. In the polar cap the vertical ion flux is uniformly downward at all locations. However, in the auroral zone the ion flux is highly structured, and a net upward flux is produced only by spatially and temporally confined events containing upward fluxes in excess of 1010 cm−2 s−1 that have no downward counterparts.

[1] Large-scale plasma density depletions are typically associated with equatorial spread F (ESF) plasma irregularities in the nightside F region, especially in the postsunset sector. Data gathered on the ROCSAT-1 spacecraft reveal numerous cases of localized, discrete plasma density enhancements in the nightside low-latitude region at ∼600 km altitude. In some cases, nearly simultaneous DMSP observations at ∼800 km reveal similar density enhancements in the same local time sector. These density enhancement structures occur in association with ESF plasma depletions, i.e., the density enhancements are observed in the same local time where ESF plasma depletions are also present simultaneously. Within these discrete structures, the plasma density may be enhanced by ∼2–3 times above the background density. The density enhancement regions have sharp, distinct edges with embedded irregularities that appear to have similar scale sizes and density fluctuation spectra as those typically found in plasma depletions. Examples studied here occur at local times about 3 hours after sunset near the equatorial anomaly region, ∼10° to 20° from the magnetic equator. The ion velocity data within the density enhancement regions show upward plasma drifts perpendicular to the magnetic field, similar to those within adjacent plasma depletion regions. The magnetic field-aligned plasma flows are generally poleward within the density enhancement regions. The observations suggest that density enhancement structures are caused by the polarization electric field which is generated within the equatorial plasma depletions and then maps to the higher latitudes along the magnetic field lines.

The authors present a comprehensive compilation of the average distribution of the electrostatic potential across the high-latitude ionosphere. The averages are compiled from potentials along the satellite path calculated from thermal ion drift data from instrumentation on the Defense Meterological Satellite Program (DMSP) flights 8 and 9 satellites. Data were collected from the DMSP F8 satellite during the period September 1987 to December 1990 and from the DMSP F9 satellite during the period March 1988 to December 1990. The potential distributions are separated by geomagnetic position, season, and orientation of the interplanetary magnetic field (IMF), and then averages of the distributions are calculated. The average potential distributions clearly show the displacement of polar cap convection contours to the dusk or dawk flanks under the influence of the IMF B{sub y} component. The cross-cap potential decreases as IMF B{sub z} changes from southward to northward. The average distributions indicate that the development of more than two convection cells for northward IMF is either uncommon or nonexistent. For IMF B{sub z} > 0 and B{sub z} >{vert_bar}B{sub y}{vert_bar}, a distorted pattern is observed in the average potential distribution, not a four-cell pattern as some previous studies suggest it should be. For allmore » orientations of the IMF, the convection reversal boundary at the poleward edge of the auroral zone is observed in the average distributions to be a rotational boundary. It is not a shear boundary as suggested by some previous investigations. On average, the Harang discontinuity (convection reversal in the auroral zone near midnight) is observed to exist weakly or not at all. When examining individual passes, a strong eastward flow is present sometimes in the region of the Harang discontinuity, especially on the poleward boundary, but not at all times as implied by the Heppner-Maynard model. 39 refs., 9 figs., 2 tabs.« less

Ionospheric convection signatures observed over the polar regions are provided by the DMSP F8 satellite. We consider five passes over the Southern summer Hemisphere during a time when the z component of the interplanetary magnetic field was stable and positive and the y component changed slowly from positive to negative. Large-scale regions of sunward flow are observed at very high latitudes consistent with a strong z component. When By and Bz are positive, but By is greater than Bz, strong evidence exists for dayside merging in a manner similar to that expected when Bz is negative. This signature is diminished as By decreases and becomes smaller than Bz, resulting in a four-cell convection pattern displaced toward the sunward side of the dawn-dusk meridian. In this case the sign of By affects the relative sizes of the two highest-latitude cells. In the Southern Hemisphere the duskside high-latitude cell is dominant for By positive and the dawnside high-latitude cell is dominant for By negative. The relative importance of possible electric field sources in the low-latitude boundary layer, the dayside cusp, and the lobe all need to be considered to adequately explain the observed evolution of the convection pattern.

Examination of the ion drift velocity vector measured on the DE2 spacecraft reveals the significance of ionospheric flows both perpendicular and parallel to the magnetic field at high latitudes. During periods of southward directed interplanetary magnetic field the familiar two-cell convection pattern perpendicular to the magnetic field is associated with field-aligned motion predominantly upward in the dayside auroral zone and cusp, and predominantly downward in the polar cap. Frictional heating by convection through the neutral gas and heating by energetic particle precipitation are believed to be responsible for the bulk of the upward flow with downward flows resulting from subsequent cooling of the plasma. Some of the upward flowing plasma is apparently given escape energy at altitudes above about 800 km. The average flow of ions across the entire high-latitude region at 400 km is outward and comparable to the energetic ion outflow observed at much higher altitudes by DE 1.