Plasma convection at high latitudes using the EISCAT VHF and ESR incoherent scatter radars

• Main Authors: Holt, J. M., van Eyken, A. P.
• Other Authors: MIT Haystack Observatory, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), EISCAT Scientific Association
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: HAL CCSD 2000
• Subjects: [SDU.OCEAN]Sciences of the Universe [physics]/Ocean; Atmosphere; [SDU.STU]Sciences of the Universe [physics]/Earth Sciences; Svalbard; Tromsø; EISCAT
• Online Access: https://hal.science/hal-00316781; https://hal.science/hal-00316781/document; https://hal.science/hal-00316781/file/angeo-18-1088-2000.pdf

International audience The recent availability of substantial data sets taken by the EISCAT Svalbard Radar allows several important tests to be made on the determination of convection patterns from incoherent scatter radar results. During one 30-h period, the Svalbard Radar made 15 min scans combining local field aligned observations with two, low elevation positions selected to intersect the two beams of the Common Programme Four experiment being simultaneously conducted by the EISCAT VHF radar at Tromsø. The common volume results from the two radars are compared. The plasma convection velocities determined independently by the two radars are shown to agree very closely and the combined three-dimensional velocity data used to test the common assumption of negligible field-aligned flow in this regime. Key words: Ionosphere (auroral ionosphere; polar ionosphere) - Magnetospheric physics (plasma convection)