Polar cap patch transportation beyond the classic scenario

We report the continuous monitoring of a polar cap patch, encompassing its creation, and a subsequent evolution that differs from the classic behavior. The patch was formed from the stormenhanced density plume, by segmentation associated with a subauroral polarization stream generated by a substorm....

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of Geophysical Research: Space Physics
Main Authors: Zhang, Q-H., Moen, J., Lockwood, M., McCrea, I., Zhang, B-C., McWilliams, K. A., Zong, Q-G., Zhang, S-R., Ruohoniemi, J. M., Thomas, E. G., Dunlop, M. W., Liu, R-Y., Yang, H-G., Hu, H-Q., Lester, Mark
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Published: American Geophysical Union 2018
Subjects:
Science & Technology
Physical Sciences
Astronomy & Astrophysics
polar cap patch
storm-enhanced density
subauroral polarization stream
magnetosphere-ionosphere coupling
polar ionosphere
EISCAT SVALBARD RADAR
MAGNETOPAUSE RECONNECTION RATE
INTERPLANETARY MAGNETIC-FIELD
PLASMA-DENSITY STRUCTURES
IONOSPHERIC F-REGION
DAYSIDE CONVECTION
NETWORK SUPERDARN
ELECTRON-DENSITY
SUBSTORM CYCLES
IMF
Svalbard
EISCAT
Online Access:https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/2016JA022443
http://hdl.handle.net/2381/42004
https://doi.org/10.1002/2016JA022443
Description
Summary:We report the continuous monitoring of a polar cap patch, encompassing its creation, and a subsequent evolution that differs from the classic behavior. The patch was formed from the stormenhanced density plume, by segmentation associated with a subauroral polarization stream generated by a substorm. Its initial antisunward motion was halted due to a rapidly changing of interplanetary magnetic field (IMF) conditions from strong southward to strong eastward with weaker northward components, and the patch subsequently very slowly evolved behind the duskside of a lobe reverse convection cell in afternoon sectors, associated with high-latitude lobe reconnection, much of it fading rapidly due to an enhancement of the ionization recombination rate. This differs from the classic scenario where polar cap patches are transported across the polar cap along the streamlines of twin-cell convection pattern from day to night. This observation provides us new important insights into patch formation and control by the IMF, which has to be taken into account in F region transport models and space weather forecasts. Peer-reviewed Publisher Version

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