Resolute Bay CADI ionosonde drifts, PolarDARN HF velocities, and cross polar cap potential

Abstract

In this study, velocities measured by the Rankin Inlet and Inuvik PolarDARN HF radars over Resolute Bay (RB) are compared with measurements from the RB CADI ionosonde to investigate the consistency of the measurements. Two types of comparisons are performed: 1‐D, where each PolarDARN radar line‐of‐sight velocity is plotted against CADI velocity projected onto appropriate radar beam, and 2‐D, where the PolarDARN merged velocity is compared with the full CADI vector. In both cases, velocities were found to statistically agree. For the 1‐D comparison, the velocities were comparable in ∼85% of cases. For the 2‐D comparison, a minor tendency for larger PolarDARN merge velocities (∼60 m/s) was noticed. The second task performed is a comparison of the SuperDARN cross polar cap potential (CPCP) and the CADI‐based CPCP and their dependence on the CADI velocity. Linear dependences were found allowing for inter‐conversion between these parameters. For large plasma drifts, the SuperDARN CPCPs were found to be much smaller than the CADI‐based CPCPs hinting that the separation between the foci of a large‐scale convection pattern is often underestimated in the SuperDARN convection mapping.