Transformation of high‐latitude ionospheric F region patches into blobs during the March 21, 1990, storm

Abstract

Discrete F region electron density enhancements of a factor of 2 or more have been observed in the high‐latitude ionosphere. These enhancements have been termed patches if they occur within the polar cap and blobs if they occur outside of the polar cap. It is important to understand the formation and evolution of these structures because they are associated with large phase and amplitude scintillation in transionospheric radio signals. Blobs are generally thought to result from the breakup of patches as they exit the polar cap; however, this process has not previously been observed. Detailed study of high‐latitude ionospheric plasma transport is generally difficult because of the sparseness (spatial and temporal) of electron density and velocity observations. In this paper, we present electron density enhancements measured from the Qaanaaq Digisonde, the Millstone Hill incoherent scatter radar, and the DMSP F8 satellite during a 5‐hour interval of the March 21, 1990, storm period and show definitively how a patch is transformed into a blob. We present a new trajectory analysis package that is capable of using ionospheric convection patterns to determine the motion of ionospheric plasma over a period of several hours. The new package uses convection patterns from the Assimilative Mapping of Ionospheric Electrodynamics (AMIE) technique to track the motion of observed patches from one site to another and thus determines where the measured electron density enhancements originated and where they went after being observed. The trajectory analysis also establishes that there is a direct connection between the enhancements observed by the different instruments at different locations. In this case, within ∼4 hours, plasma observed by a Digisonde near the pole is convected through 35° of latitude to the northeastern United States, where it is observed by the Millstone Hill radar, then roughly equal portions are transported westward to Alaska and eastward to Scandinavia where they are observed by the DMSP satellite. This study demonstrates that the changing convection pattern can significantly distort the patch shape and trajectory, and illustrates the high degree of mixing of ionospheric plasma by convection. The changing convection pattern leads to the simultaneous existence of a boundary blob and a subauroral blob which are both observed by the Millstone Hill radar. This work is very relevant to our future ability to specify and forecast ionospheric conditions at high latitudes. It represents a critical step from a merely qualitative ability to model the evolution of patches and blobs to a quantitative ability.