Journal
GEOPHYSICAL RESEARCH LETTERS
Volume 42, Issue 4, Pages 996-1003Publisher
AMER GEOPHYSICAL UNION
DOI: 10.1002/2014GL062610
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Funding
- European Space Agency
- Norwegian Research Council [230935]
- Radio and Space Plasma Physics Group at the University of Leicester
- Norwegian Centre for International Cooperation in Education (SiU) [NNA-2012/10099]
- Research Council of Norway [230996]
- Canadian NSERC PGSD2 graduate scholarship
- NSERC Discovery Grant
- Canadian Space Agency
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High-resolution in situ measurements from the three Swarm spacecraft, in a string-of-pearls configuration, provide new insights about the combined role of flow channel events and particle impact ionization in creating F region electron density structures in the northern Scandinavian dayside cusp. We present a case of polar cap patch formation where a reconnection-driven low-density relative westward flow channel is eroding the dayside solar-ionized plasma but where particle impact ionization in the cusp dominates the initial plasma structuring. In the cusp, density features are observed which are twice as dense as the solar-ionized background. These features then follow the polar cap convection and become less structured and lower in amplitude. These are the first in situ observations tracking polar cap patch evolution from creation by plasma transport and enhancement by cusp precipitation, through entrainment in the polar cap flow and relaxation into smooth patches as they approach the nightside auroral oval.
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