Seasonal effect for polar cap sunward plasma flows at strongly northward IMF Bz

We use Super Dual Auroral Radar Network data to study polar cap ionospheric flow under strongly dominant positive interplanetary magnetic field Bz component. We show that the near‐noon flow along the magnetic meridian is predominantly sunward in summer. The sunward velocity increase with intensifica...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of geophysical research. Space physics 2017-02, Vol.122 (2), p.2530-2541
Main Authors: Koustov, A. V., Yakymenko, K. N., Ponomarenko, P. V.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Amplification
both hemispheres
Convection
dominant northward IMF
Electric fields
Flow velocity
Geophysics
Interplanetary magnetic field
Ionosphere
Magnetic fields
Plasma
polar cap
Polar caps
Radar
Radar data
Radar networks
Southern Hemisphere
Summer
sunward flows
SuperDARN radars
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Summary:We use Super Dual Auroral Radar Network data to study polar cap ionospheric flow under strongly dominant positive interplanetary magnetic field Bz component. We show that the near‐noon flow along the magnetic meridian is predominantly sunward in summer. The sunward velocity increase with intensification of the external driver (the reverse convection electric field) is also faster in summer, and the rate of the increase is slightly larger for the Southern Hemisphere. The sunward flows simultaneously detected in both hemispheres are faster in the summer hemisphere. In addition, while sunward flows are aligned with the midnight‐noon line in a winter hemisphere, they are oriented toward earlier magnetic local hours in a summer hemisphere. Key Points Sunward plasma flows for strongly northward IMF are more frequent and fast in summer Sunward flow velocity increases with intensification of the reverse convection electric field with largest rate in summer Sunward plasma flow in the summer hemisphere is rotated toward prenoon MLT hours
ISSN:2169-9380
2169-9402
DOI:10.1002/2016JA023556