VARIABILITY OF DAYSIDE CONVECTION AND MOTIONS OF THE CUSP/CLEFT AURORA

• Main Authors: M. Lockwood L, J. Moen, S. W. H. Cowley, A. D. Farmer, U. P. Lvhaug, H. Liihr, V. N. Davda I
• Other Authors: The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Subjects: Svalbard; EISCAT
• Online Access: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.694.7812; http://www.eiscat.rl.ac.uk/Members/mike/publications/pdfs/1993/105_Lockwoodetal93_93GL00846.pdf

Abstract. We present measurements of the ionospheric plasma flow over the range of invariant latitudes 71-76 ø, observed at 10-second resolution using both the EISCAT radars, with simultaneous observations of the 630 nm cusp/cleft aurora made by a meridian-scanning photometer at Ny]klesund, Svalbard. A major increase inthe trans-auroral voltage from 5 to 40 kV (associated with sunward convection in the early afternoon sector) is found to follow a southward motion of the aurora and coincide with the onset of regular transient auroral breakup events. It is shown that these observations are consistent with recent theoretical work on how ionospheric flows are excited by time-dependent reconnection at the dayside magnetopause.