Origin of the SuperDARN broad Doppler spectra:simultaneous observation with Oersted satellite magnetometer

Abstract

We perform a case study of a favorable conjunction of an overpass of the Oersted satellite with the field-of-view of the SuperDARN Syowa East radar during an interval of the southward IMF Bz. At the time, the radar observed an L-shell aligned boundary in the spectral width around the dayside ionosphere. Simultaneously, high-frequency (0.2–5Hz) magnetic field fluctuations were observed by the Oersted satellite's high-time resolution magnetometer. These magnetic field fluctuations are considered to be Alfvén waves possibly associated with the particle which precipitates into the dayside high-latitude ionosphere when magnetic reconnection occurs. It has been theoretically predicted that the time-varying electric field is the dominant physical process to expand the broad HF radar Doppler spectra. Our observation clearly demonstrates that the boundary between narrow and broad spectral widths is corresponding well to the boundary in the level of the fluctuations, which supports the previous theoretical prediction. A close relationship between electric and magnetic field fluctuations and particle precipitations during southward IMF conditions has been confirmed by many authors. The present observation allows us to suggest that the boundary between narrow and broad Doppler spectral widths observed in the dayside ionosphere is connected with the signature of the open/closed field line boundary, such as the cusp particle precipitations via electric and magnetic field fluctuations for the case of the negative IMF Bz conditions. Key words. Ionosphere (ionosphere-magnetosphere interactions; plasma convection). Magnetospheric physics (magnetopause, cusp, and boundary layers)