Volumes and Issues  Contents of Issue 11

Ann. Geophys., 24, 2981-2990, 2006
www.ann-geophys.net/24/2981/2006/
© European Geosciences Union 2006

Comparison of the magnetic equivalent convection direction and ionospheric convection observed by the SuperDARN radars

L. V. Benkevitch¹, A. V. Koustov¹, J. Liang², and J. F. Watermann^3
1Institute of Space and Atmospheric Studies, University of Saskatchewan, 116 Science Place, Saskatoon, S7N 5E2 Canada
²Canadian Space Agency, Saint-Hubert, Quebec, Canada
³Danish Meteorological Institute, Lyngbyvej 100, 2100 Copenhagen, Denmark

Abstract. SuperDARN radar and high-latitude magnetometer observations are used to statistically investigate quality of the convection direction estimates from magnetometer data if assumption is made that the magnetic equivalent convection vector (MEC) corresponds to the convection direction. The statistics includes five full days, ~75 000 of joint individual measurements for different seasons. It is demonstrated that the best (worst) agreement between the MEC and ionospheric convection occurs for the sunlit, summer (dark, winter) ionosphere. Overall, the MEC direction is reasonable (deviates less than 45° from the SuperDARN direction) in at least ~55% of points and it is better for the latitudes of the auroral oval. In terms of the magnetic local time, the agreement is the best (worst) in the dusk (early morning) sector. Possible reasons for differences between the MEC and ionospheric convection directions are discussed.

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Citation: Benkevitch, L. V., Koustov, A. V., Liang, J., and Watermann, J. F.: Comparison of the magnetic equivalent convection direction and ionospheric convection observed by the SuperDARN radars, Ann. Geophys., 24, 2981-2990, 2006.   Bibtex   EndNote   Reference Manager