ADVANCES IN POLAR SCIENCE ›› 2013, Vol. 25 ›› Issue (1): 35-44.DOI: 10.3724/SP.J.1084.2013.00035

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MULTI-INSTRUMENT STUDY OF POLEWARD MOVING AURORAL FORMS DURING DIFFERNET INTERPLANETARY MAGNETIC FIELD CONDITIONS

Xing Zanyang1, 2, Yang Huigen2, Han Desheng2, Wu Zhensen1, Liu Junming2, Hu Zejun2, Zhang Qinghe2, Liu Yonghua2, Zhang Beichen2, Hu Hongqiao2   

  1.  
    1School of Science, Xidian University, Xi’an 710071, China;
    2 SOA Key Laboratory for Polar Science, Polar Research Institute of China, Shanghai 200136, China
  • Received:2012-08-29 Revised:2012-09-06 Online:2013-03-30 Published:2013-03-30
  • Contact: XING Zanyang

Abstract: Using high temporal resolution optical data obtained from three-wavelength all-sky imagers at Yellow River Station (YSR) (78.92oN, 11.93oE) in Arctic, together with the EISCAT Svalbard radar (ESR) and SuperDARN HF radars, we investigate the aurora and plasma features in the polar ionosphere under different interplanetary magnetic field (IMF) conditions between 0900 and 1010 UT on 22 December 2003. A series of poleward moving auroral forms (PMAFs) are observed to brighten at the equatorward boundary of the dayside auroral oval and then propagate poleward. Simultaneous optical and ESR observations reveal that all of these PMAFs are clear associated with pulsed plasma precipitations. During northward IMF, the plasma can precipitate lower reaching the ionopheric E-region and there is a reverse convection cell associated with these PMAFs, which is one of the typical signatures in the polar ionosphere of the dayside high-latitude (lobe) reconnection. These results indicate that the PAMFs are attribute to the high-latitude reconnection. During southward IMF, the PAMFs observed at YRS show a larger-latitudinal motion indicating a longer mean lifetime, and the associated ionopheric features indicate that the PMAFs are generated by the dayside magnetopause low-latitude reconnection.

Key words: PMAFs, interplanetary magnetic field, reconnection