Our study demonstrates a remarkable association between the earthward penetration of ULF waves and radiation belt electron enhancements during four magnetic storms that occurred in 2001. In the past, ULF waves had been observed at unusual depths during rare superstorms. But ULF wave activity, reaching magnetic shells as low as 2, was also observed during relatively intense storms when it played a key role in diffusing electrons radially inward and thereby accelerating them to higher energies.

Irregular broadband pulsations and narrow-band Pc5 waves are found to be a ubiquitous element of ULF activity in the dayside high-latitude region. To identify the ionospheric projections of the cusp, we use the width of return signal of the SuperDARN radar. The spatial structure of broadband Pc5-6 pulsation spectral power has been found to have a localized latitudinal peak, not under the cusp proper as was previously thought, but several degrees southward from the equatorward cusp boundary.