Spatial and Temporal Response of Auroral and Subauroral Plasma Convection to High- Latitude Drivers of Geomagnetic Activity
Abstract
During the IPY, the second of two lower-latitude SuperDARN radars was put into operation in the eastern U.S. Located at Blackstone, VA and directed toward central Canada, it extends the coverage of the preexisting Wallops Island radar to more than 4 hours of magnetic local time and covers 50-70 degrees geomagnetic latitude providing coverage of ionospheric plasma convection and electric fields on magnetic field lines connected to the inner boundary of the plasmasheet, ring current and plasmapause. Although initial measurements with this coordinated pair of radars were made at a time of low geomagnetic activity, there have been many opportunities to examine both the spatial and temporal response of low-latitude auroral and subauroral plasma convection and its associated electric field to a variety of high-latitude magnetospheric drivers including dayside reconnection and midnight sector substorms. In this paper, we discuss the dynamical response of these flows to both dayside reconnection and substorms. We specifically examine the timing, location, spatial extent and intensity of these flow enhancements versus the nature and strength of the driver.
- Publication:
-
AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- December 2008
- Bibcode:
- 2008AGUFMSA32A..09G
- Keywords:
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- 2407 Auroral ionosphere (2704);
- 2411 Electric fields (2712);
- 2431 Ionosphere/magnetosphere interactions (2736);
- 2463 Plasma convection (2760);
- 2760 Plasma convection (2463)