Polar cap patch segmentation of the tongue of ionization in the morning convection cell

Two types of poleward moving plasma concentration enhancements (PMPCEs) were observed during a sequence of pulsed reconnection events, both in the morning convection cell: Type L (low density) was associated with a cusp flow channel and seems likely to have been produced by ionization associated with...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Geophysical Research Letters
Main Authors: Zhang, Q. H., Zhang, B. C., Moen, J., Lockwood, M., McCrea, I. W., Yang, H. G., Hu, H. Q., Liu, R. Y., Zhang, S. R., Lester, Mark
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Published: American Geophysical Union 2014
Subjects:
Science & Technology
Physical Sciences
Geosciences
Multidisciplinary
Geology
Polar cap patches
tongue of ionization
poleward-moving plasma concentration enhancements
EISCAT SVALBARD RADAR
MAGNETOPAUSE RECONNECTION
IONOSPHERE
BOUNDARY
DYNAMICS
DENSITY
FLOWS
Svalbard
EISCAT
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/2381/28734
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/grl.50616/abstract
https://doi.org/10.1002/grl.50616
Description
Summary:Two types of poleward moving plasma concentration enhancements (PMPCEs) were observed during a sequence of pulsed reconnection events, both in the morning convection cell: Type L (low density) was associated with a cusp flow channel and seems likely to have been produced by ionization associated with particle precipitation, while Type H (high density) appeared to originate from the segmentation of the tongue of ionization by the processes which produced the Type L events. As a result, the Type L and Type H PMPCEs were interspersed, producing a complex density structure which underlines the importance of cusp flow channels as a mechanism for segmenting and structuring electron density in the cusp and shows the necessity of differentiating between at least two classes of electron density patches. STFC grant ST/H002480/1 Peer-reviewed Publisher Version

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