On the Creation, Depletion, and End of Life of Polar Cap Patches

Nina Kristine Eriksen; Dag A. Lorentzen; Kjellmar Oksavik; Lisa Baddeley; Keisuke Hosokawa; Kazuo Shiokawa; Emma Bland; Larry Paxton; Yongliang Zhang; Kathryn McWilliams; Tim Yeoman; David R. Themens

doi:10.1029/2023ja031739

On the Creation, Depletion, and End of Life of Polar Cap Patches

Nina Kristine Eriksen^*, Dag A. Lorentzen, Kjellmar Oksavik, Lisa Baddeley, Keisuke Hosokawa, Kazuo Shiokawa, Emma Bland, Larry Paxton, Yongliang Zhang, Kathryn McWilliams, Tim Yeoman, David R. Themens

^*Corresponding author for this work

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Abstract

Ionospheric convection patterns from the Super Dual Auroral Radar Network are used to determine the trajectories, transit times, and decay rates of three polar cap patches from their creation in the dayside polar cap ionosphere to their end of life on the nightside. The first two polar cap patches were created within 12 min of each other and traveled through the dayside convection throat, before entering the nightside auroral oval after 104 and 92 min, respectively. When the patches approached the nightside auroral oval, an intensification in the poleward auroral boundary occurred close to their exit point, followed by a decrease in the transit velocity. The last patch (patch 3) decayed completely within the polar cap and had a lifetime of only 78 min. After a change in drift direction, patch 3 had a radar backscatter power half‐life of 4.23 min, which reduced to 1.80 min after a stagnation, indicating a variable decay rate. 28 minutes after the change in direction, and 16 min after coming to a halt within the Clyde River radar field‐of‐view, patch 3 appeared to reach its end of life. We relate this rapid decay to increased frictional heating, which speeds up the recombination rate. Therefore, we suggest that the slowed patch motion within the polar cap convection pattern is a major factor in determining whether the patch survives as a recognizable density enhancement by the time the flux tubes comprising the initial patch cross into the nightside auroral oval.

Original language	English
Article number	e2023JA031739
Journal	Journal of Geophysical Research: Space Physics
Volume	128
Issue number	12
Early online date	29 Nov 2023
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1029/2023ja031739
Publication status	Published - Dec 2023

Bibliographical note

The Birkeland Center for Space Science is funded by the Research Council of Norway/CoE under contract 223252/F50. We thank the support from the ISSI/ISSI-BJ for the international team on “Multi-Scale Magnetosphere-Ionosphere-Thermosphere Interaction.” The authors acknowledge the use of SuperDARN data. SuperDARN is a collection of radars funded by national scientific funding agencies of Australia, Canada, China, France, Italy, Japan, Norway, South Africa, United Kingdom, and the United States of America. EISCAT is an international association supported by research organizations in China (CRIRP), Finland (SA), Japan (NIPR and ISEE), Norway (NFR), Sweden (VR), and the United Kingdom (UKRI). The Norwegian participation in EISCAT and EISCAT_3D is funded by the Research Council of Norway through research infrastructure Grant 245683. We acknowledge NASA contract NAS5-02099 and V. Angelopoulos for use of data from the THEMIS Mission. Specifically, S. Mende and E. Donovan for use of the ASI data, the CSA for logistical support in fielding and data retrieval from the GBO stations, and NSF for support of GIMNAST through grant AGS-1004736. The optical observation at Resolute Bay was financially supported by the JSPS (Japan Society for Promotion of Science) Grants-in-Aid for Scientific Research (16H06286, 26302006, 21H04518, 22K21345). We would also like to thank the late Dr. Patricia Doherty and Dr. Marc Hairston for the use of the DMSP SSIES data. T. K. Yeoman was supported by STFC Grant ST/W00089X/1 and NERC Grant NE/V000748/1. Infrastructure funding for CHAIN was provided by the Canadian Foundation for Innovation and the New Brunswick Innovation Foundation. DRT acknowledges the support of the Canadian Space Agency (CSA) under Grant 21SUSTCHAI. GPS TEC data products and access through the Madrigal distributed data system are provided to the community(http://www.openmadrigal.org) by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) under support from US National Science Foundation Grant AGS-1952737. Data for TEC processing is provided from the following organizations: UNAVCO, Scripps Orbit and Permanent Array Center, Institut Geographique National, France, International GNSS Service, The Crustal Dynamics Data Information System (CDDIS), National Geodetic Survey, Instituto Brasileiro de Geografia e Estatística, RAMSAC CORS of Instituto Geográfico Nacional de la República Argentina, Arecibo Observatory, Low-Latitude Ionospheric Sensor Network (LISN), Topcon Positioning Systems, Inc., Canadian High Arctic Ionospheric Network, Centro di Ricerche Sismologiche, Système d’Observation du Niveau des Eaux Littorales (SONEL), RENAG: REseau NAtional GPS permanent, GeoNet—the official source of geological hazard information for New Zealand, GNSS Reference Networks, Finnish Meteorological Institute, and SWEPOS—Sweden.

Keywords

plasma transport
airglow patches
ionospheric convection
plasma density decay
SuperDARN
polar cap patches

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title = "On the Creation, Depletion, and End of Life of Polar Cap Patches",

abstract = "Ionospheric convection patterns from the Super Dual Auroral Radar Network are used to determine the trajectories, transit times, and decay rates of three polar cap patches from their creation in the dayside polar cap ionosphere to their end of life on the nightside. The first two polar cap patches were created within 12 min of each other and traveled through the dayside convection throat, before entering the nightside auroral oval after 104 and 92 min, respectively. When the patches approached the nightside auroral oval, an intensification in the poleward auroral boundary occurred close to their exit point, followed by a decrease in the transit velocity. The last patch (patch 3) decayed completely within the polar cap and had a lifetime of only 78 min. After a change in drift direction, patch 3 had a radar backscatter power half‐life of 4.23 min, which reduced to 1.80 min after a stagnation, indicating a variable decay rate. 28 minutes after the change in direction, and 16 min after coming to a halt within the Clyde River radar field‐of‐view, patch 3 appeared to reach its end of life. We relate this rapid decay to increased frictional heating, which speeds up the recombination rate. Therefore, we suggest that the slowed patch motion within the polar cap convection pattern is a major factor in determining whether the patch survives as a recognizable density enhancement by the time the flux tubes comprising the initial patch cross into the nightside auroral oval.",

keywords = "plasma transport, airglow patches, ionospheric convection, plasma density decay, SuperDARN, polar cap patches",

author = "Eriksen, {Nina Kristine} and Lorentzen, {Dag A.} and Kjellmar Oksavik and Lisa Baddeley and Keisuke Hosokawa and Kazuo Shiokawa and Emma Bland and Larry Paxton and Yongliang Zhang and Kathryn McWilliams and Tim Yeoman and Themens, {David R.}",

note = "The Birkeland Center for Space Science is funded by the Research Council of Norway/CoE under contract 223252/F50. We thank the support from the ISSI/ISSI-BJ for the international team on “Multi-Scale Magnetosphere-Ionosphere-Thermosphere Interaction.” The authors acknowledge the use of SuperDARN data. SuperDARN is a collection of radars funded by national scientific funding agencies of Australia, Canada, China, France, Italy, Japan, Norway, South Africa, United Kingdom, and the United States of America. EISCAT is an international association supported by research organizations in China (CRIRP), Finland (SA), Japan (NIPR and ISEE), Norway (NFR), Sweden (VR), and the United Kingdom (UKRI). The Norwegian participation in EISCAT and EISCAT_3D is funded by the Research Council of Norway through research infrastructure Grant 245683. We acknowledge NASA contract NAS5-02099 and V. Angelopoulos for use of data from the THEMIS Mission. Specifically, S. Mende and E. Donovan for use of the ASI data, the CSA for logistical support in fielding and data retrieval from the GBO stations, and NSF for support of GIMNAST through grant AGS-1004736. The optical observation at Resolute Bay was financially supported by the JSPS (Japan Society for Promotion of Science) Grants-in-Aid for Scientific Research (16H06286, 26302006, 21H04518, 22K21345). We would also like to thank the late Dr. Patricia Doherty and Dr. Marc Hairston for the use of the DMSP SSIES data. T. K. Yeoman was supported by STFC Grant ST/W00089X/1 and NERC Grant NE/V000748/1. Infrastructure funding for CHAIN was provided by the Canadian Foundation for Innovation and the New Brunswick Innovation Foundation. DRT acknowledges the support of the Canadian Space Agency (CSA) under Grant 21SUSTCHAI. GPS TEC data products and access through the Madrigal distributed data system are provided to the community(http://www.openmadrigal.org) by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) under support from US National Science Foundation Grant AGS-1952737. Data for TEC processing is provided from the following organizations: UNAVCO, Scripps Orbit and Permanent Array Center, Institut Geographique National, France, International GNSS Service, The Crustal Dynamics Data Information System (CDDIS), National Geodetic Survey, Instituto Brasileiro de Geografia e Estat{\'i}stica, RAMSAC CORS of Instituto Geogr{\'a}fico Nacional de la Rep{\'u}blica Argentina, Arecibo Observatory, Low-Latitude Ionospheric Sensor Network (LISN), Topcon Positioning Systems, Inc., Canadian High Arctic Ionospheric Network, Centro di Ricerche Sismologiche, Syst{\`e}me d{\textquoteright}Observation du Niveau des Eaux Littorales (SONEL), RENAG: REseau NAtional GPS permanent, GeoNet—the official source of geological hazard information for New Zealand, GNSS Reference Networks, Finnish Meteorological Institute, and SWEPOS—Sweden.",

year = "2023",

month = dec,

doi = "10.1029/2023ja031739",

language = "English",

volume = "128",

journal = "Journal of Geophysical Research: Space Physics",

issn = "2169-9380",

publisher = "Wiley-Blackwell",

number = "12",

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TY - JOUR

T1 - On the Creation, Depletion, and End of Life of Polar Cap Patches

AU - Eriksen, Nina Kristine

AU - Lorentzen, Dag A.

AU - Oksavik, Kjellmar

AU - Baddeley, Lisa

AU - Hosokawa, Keisuke

AU - Shiokawa, Kazuo

AU - Bland, Emma

AU - Paxton, Larry

AU - Zhang, Yongliang

AU - McWilliams, Kathryn

AU - Yeoman, Tim

AU - Themens, David R.

N1 - The Birkeland Center for Space Science is funded by the Research Council of Norway/CoE under contract 223252/F50. We thank the support from the ISSI/ISSI-BJ for the international team on “Multi-Scale Magnetosphere-Ionosphere-Thermosphere Interaction.” The authors acknowledge the use of SuperDARN data. SuperDARN is a collection of radars funded by national scientific funding agencies of Australia, Canada, China, France, Italy, Japan, Norway, South Africa, United Kingdom, and the United States of America. EISCAT is an international association supported by research organizations in China (CRIRP), Finland (SA), Japan (NIPR and ISEE), Norway (NFR), Sweden (VR), and the United Kingdom (UKRI). The Norwegian participation in EISCAT and EISCAT_3D is funded by the Research Council of Norway through research infrastructure Grant 245683. We acknowledge NASA contract NAS5-02099 and V. Angelopoulos for use of data from the THEMIS Mission. Specifically, S. Mende and E. Donovan for use of the ASI data, the CSA for logistical support in fielding and data retrieval from the GBO stations, and NSF for support of GIMNAST through grant AGS-1004736. The optical observation at Resolute Bay was financially supported by the JSPS (Japan Society for Promotion of Science) Grants-in-Aid for Scientific Research (16H06286, 26302006, 21H04518, 22K21345). We would also like to thank the late Dr. Patricia Doherty and Dr. Marc Hairston for the use of the DMSP SSIES data. T. K. Yeoman was supported by STFC Grant ST/W00089X/1 and NERC Grant NE/V000748/1. Infrastructure funding for CHAIN was provided by the Canadian Foundation for Innovation and the New Brunswick Innovation Foundation. DRT acknowledges the support of the Canadian Space Agency (CSA) under Grant 21SUSTCHAI. GPS TEC data products and access through the Madrigal distributed data system are provided to the community(http://www.openmadrigal.org) by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) under support from US National Science Foundation Grant AGS-1952737. Data for TEC processing is provided from the following organizations: UNAVCO, Scripps Orbit and Permanent Array Center, Institut Geographique National, France, International GNSS Service, The Crustal Dynamics Data Information System (CDDIS), National Geodetic Survey, Instituto Brasileiro de Geografia e Estatística, RAMSAC CORS of Instituto Geográfico Nacional de la República Argentina, Arecibo Observatory, Low-Latitude Ionospheric Sensor Network (LISN), Topcon Positioning Systems, Inc., Canadian High Arctic Ionospheric Network, Centro di Ricerche Sismologiche, Système d’Observation du Niveau des Eaux Littorales (SONEL), RENAG: REseau NAtional GPS permanent, GeoNet—the official source of geological hazard information for New Zealand, GNSS Reference Networks, Finnish Meteorological Institute, and SWEPOS—Sweden.

PY - 2023/12

Y1 - 2023/12

N2 - Ionospheric convection patterns from the Super Dual Auroral Radar Network are used to determine the trajectories, transit times, and decay rates of three polar cap patches from their creation in the dayside polar cap ionosphere to their end of life on the nightside. The first two polar cap patches were created within 12 min of each other and traveled through the dayside convection throat, before entering the nightside auroral oval after 104 and 92 min, respectively. When the patches approached the nightside auroral oval, an intensification in the poleward auroral boundary occurred close to their exit point, followed by a decrease in the transit velocity. The last patch (patch 3) decayed completely within the polar cap and had a lifetime of only 78 min. After a change in drift direction, patch 3 had a radar backscatter power half‐life of 4.23 min, which reduced to 1.80 min after a stagnation, indicating a variable decay rate. 28 minutes after the change in direction, and 16 min after coming to a halt within the Clyde River radar field‐of‐view, patch 3 appeared to reach its end of life. We relate this rapid decay to increased frictional heating, which speeds up the recombination rate. Therefore, we suggest that the slowed patch motion within the polar cap convection pattern is a major factor in determining whether the patch survives as a recognizable density enhancement by the time the flux tubes comprising the initial patch cross into the nightside auroral oval.

AB - Ionospheric convection patterns from the Super Dual Auroral Radar Network are used to determine the trajectories, transit times, and decay rates of three polar cap patches from their creation in the dayside polar cap ionosphere to their end of life on the nightside. The first two polar cap patches were created within 12 min of each other and traveled through the dayside convection throat, before entering the nightside auroral oval after 104 and 92 min, respectively. When the patches approached the nightside auroral oval, an intensification in the poleward auroral boundary occurred close to their exit point, followed by a decrease in the transit velocity. The last patch (patch 3) decayed completely within the polar cap and had a lifetime of only 78 min. After a change in drift direction, patch 3 had a radar backscatter power half‐life of 4.23 min, which reduced to 1.80 min after a stagnation, indicating a variable decay rate. 28 minutes after the change in direction, and 16 min after coming to a halt within the Clyde River radar field‐of‐view, patch 3 appeared to reach its end of life. We relate this rapid decay to increased frictional heating, which speeds up the recombination rate. Therefore, we suggest that the slowed patch motion within the polar cap convection pattern is a major factor in determining whether the patch survives as a recognizable density enhancement by the time the flux tubes comprising the initial patch cross into the nightside auroral oval.

KW - plasma transport

KW - airglow patches

KW - ionospheric convection

KW - plasma density decay

KW - SuperDARN

KW - polar cap patches

U2 - 10.1029/2023ja031739

DO - 10.1029/2023ja031739

M3 - Article

SN - 2169-9380

VL - 128

JO - Journal of Geophysical Research: Space Physics

JF - Journal of Geophysical Research: Space Physics

IS - 12

M1 - e2023JA031739

ER -

On the Creation, Depletion, and End of Life of Polar Cap Patches

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Bibliographical note

Keywords

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