High Latitude Magnetometer Arrays: Multipoint and Conjugate Data for Studies of Currents, Transients, and Ultra-Low-Frequency Waves in Earth's Space Environment

Arrays of ground magnetometers provide a powerful yet relatively economical means of monitoring both steady and more rapidly-varying magnetospheric and ionospheric processes over extended regions. This talk will feature scientific accomplishments, and highlight the potential for future studies, using data from the Magnetometer Array for Cusp and Cleft Studies (MACCS), a two-dimensional array of fluxgate magnetometers in Eastern Arctic Canada; from roughly conjugate arrays of fluxgate magnetometers in Antarctica (including South Pole Station, McMurdo, Halley, and U.S. (PENGUIn) and British (BAS) Automatic Geophysical Observatories); and from search coil magnetometers located at many of these same sites. Nominally conjugate (Arctic : Antarctic) sites include Clyde River : AGO P1 and Gjoa Haven : McMurdo in the polar cap, Pangnirtung / Iqaluit : South Pole at near-cusp latitudes, and Sondrestromfjord : AGO P3 and Nain : Halley in the auroral / subauroral zone. Recent accomplishments include studies of the timing of SSCs and substorm onsets, convection reorientations, traveling convection vortices (TCVs), and various classes of ULF waves, from Pc 1-2 waves to very-long-period variations in the polar cap. Examples of synergistic studies using multiple magnetometer arrays and/or other ground-based instruments will also be presented.