Articles | Volume 18, issue 8
https://doi.org/10.1007/s00585-000-0897-x
https://doi.org/10.1007/s00585-000-0897-x
31 Aug 2000
31 Aug 2000

Interhemispheric observations of nightside ionospheric electric fields in response to IMF Bz and By changes and substorm pseudobreakup

T. K. Yeoman, R. V. Lewis, H. Khan, S. W. H. Cowley, and J. M. Ruohoniemi

Abstract. HF radar data during equinoctial, small IMF By conditions have enabled the ionospheric convection during the substorm growth phase and substorm pseudobreakup to be studied in both hemispheres. This has revealed both conjugate and non-conjugate convection behaviour during the substorm growth phase before and after the pseudobreakup onset. The nightside convection pattern is found to respond promptly to the southward turning of the interplanetary magnetic field (IMF) which impacts on the dusk flank of the magnetosphere due to an inclined phase front in the IMF in the case study presented. The subsequent interhemispheric observations of nightside convection are controlled by the IMF By polarity. The time scale for the response to changes in the IMF By component is found to be a little longer than for Bz, and the full impact of the IMF By is not apparent in the nightside convection until after substorm pseudobreakup has occurred. The pseudobreakup itself is found to result in a transitory suppression in the ionospheric electric field in both hemispheres. This flow suppression is very similar to that observed in HF radar observations of full substorm onset, with the exception of a lack of subsequent poleward expansion.

Key words: Ionosphere (auroral ionosphere) - Magnetospheric physics (magnetosphere-ionosphere interactions; storms and substorms)