Observations of filamentary field-aligned current coupling between the magnetospheric boundary layer and the ionosphere

Abstract

A distinct class of dayside high-latitude magnetic pulsations can be identified from the spatial characteristics of the disturbance field. These pulsations exhibit traveling radial patterns such as would result from moving filaments of field-aligned current interacting with the ionosphere to produce cells of Hall current and vortexlike plasma flow. Time intervals containing a series of continuous multiple vortices are investigated here. The vortices occur on the boundary between sunward and antisunward ionospheric plasma convection. Low altitude DMSP satellite particle measurements indicate that the vortices are on magnetic field lines which map to the inner edge of the magnetospheric low latitude boundary layer. No repetitive solar wind disturbance (e.g., pressure variations) appears to be associated with the events, suggesting that the vortices are related to a local magnetospheric instability. No strong correlation between interplanetary field conditions and the detection of vortices is found.