Multi-instrument, high-resolution imaging of polar cap plasma transportation

The plasma of Earth's ionosphere at high latitudes is subject to redistribution by strong electric fields of magnetospheric origin. The large-scale motion of the plasma most often conforms to a two-cell pattern, with antisunward flow from the dayside across the polar cap to the nightside and return flow at auroral latitudes in the dawn and dusk sectors. Polar cap patches are discrete plasma structures in the F-region ionosphere characterized by electron densities at least twice those of the background polar cap plasma. These features are known to be closely related to scintillations on communications signals and are a productive source for decameter-scale plasma irregularity formation. We focus on an hours-long interval during a geomagnetic storm on 22 January 2012 when a series of patches were simultaneously observed with high spatial and temporal resolution by two 630.0 nm all-sky airglow imagers located within the polar cap at Resolute Bay, Canada and Longyearbyen, Norway. Comparisons with global maps of GPS total electron content (TEC) allow for the identification of patch generation from storm enhanced density (SED) near the dayside cusp and subsequent antisunward patch transportation to the nightside polar cap boundary. Finally, we examine the characteristics of SuperDARN radar observations of HF backscatter within these high density polar cap patches.