Polar cap flow channel events: spontaneous and driven responses

Abstract. We present two case studies of specific flow channel events appearing at the dusk and/or dawn polar cap boundary during passage at Earth of interplanetary (IP) coronal mass ejections (ICMEs) on 10 January and 25 July 2004. The channels of enhanced (>1 km/s) antisunward convection are documented by SuperDARN radars and dawn-dusk crossings of the polar cap by the DMSP F13 satellite. The relationship with Birkeland currents (C1–C2) located poleward of the traditional R1–R2 currents is demonstrated. The convection events are manifest in ground magnetic deflections obtained from the IMAGE (International Monitor for Auroral Geomagnetic Effects) Svalbard chain of ground magnetometer stations located within 71–76° MLAT. By combining the ionospheric convection data and the ground magnetograms we are able to study the temporal behaviour of the convection events. In the two ICME case studies the convection events belong to two different categories, i.e., directly driven and spontaneous events. In the 10 January case two sharp southward turnings of the ICME magnetic field excited corresponding convection events as detected by IMAGE and SuperDARN. We use this case to determine the ground magnetic signature of enhanced flow channel events (the NH-dusk/B_y<0 variant). In the 25 July case a several-hour-long interval of steady southwest ICME field (B_z<0; B_y<0) gave rise to a long series of spontaneous convection events as detected by IMAGE when the ground stations swept through the 12:00–18:00 MLT sector. From the ground-satellite conjunction on 25 July we infer the pulsed nature of the polar cap ionospheric flow channel events in this case. The typical duration of these convection enhancements in the polar cap is 10 min.