Physics
Scientific paper
May 1996
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=1996jgr...10110919r&link_type=abstract
Journal of Geophysical Research, Volume 101, Issue A5, p. 10919-10938
Physics
18
Ionosphere: Plasma Convection, Magnetospheric Physics: Magnetosphere/Ionosphere Interactions, Magnetospheric Physics: Magnetopause, Cusp, And Boundary Layers, Magnetospheric Physics: Solar Wind/Magnetosphere Interactions
Scientific paper
We present initial results from observations of the northern summer polar ionospheric convection reversal boundary using ground- and satellite-based instrumentation. Ionospheric convection measurements obtained using the Sondrestrom radar are used to locate and observe the boundary. The flow around the reversal is compared to three different modeled low patterns. The first is a shear reversal (oppositely directed flows with no flow across the boundary). The second is a shear reversal combined with uniform poleward flow. The final flow pattern observed is a rotational reversal, where flows gradually turn from one direction to the opposite over distances on the order of 200-400 km. The convection reversals observed were categorized into three different classes: (1) stationary and steady, (2) nonstationary, and (3) oscillating. A stationary and steady boundary remains at the same invariant latitude for long periods of time and demonstrates no observable motion. A nonstationary boundary will propagate northward or southward, generally remaining parallel to a line of invariant latitude. The oscillating reversal boundary (ORB) will have wave-like motions of the local boundary location. A number of different reversals were classified and then studied further using other instrumentation, which include the Greenland coastal and MAGIC chains of magnetometers, the drift meter and particle precipitation instruments from the DMSP F9, F10, and F11 satellites, and interplanetary magnetic field (IMF) measurements from the IMP 8 satellite. A stationary and steady reversal has been observed during a time of magnitude variations in the By and Bz components of the IMF, but no sign changes in either of the components. The nonstationary reversals have been observed to be a response to both sign changes and magnitude changes with no sign changes in IMF components. Of the two ORBs reported here, one has been determined to be a ULF wave propagating along the convection reversal boundary, which maps to the magnetospheric low latitude boundary layer. The other ORB has little coherence between longitudinally spaced magnetometer stations, implying that the propagating waves are changing form between the stations.
Clauer Robert C.
Ridley Aaron J.
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