Recent studies have shown that the motion of the cusp can be deduced from the energetic neutral atom signals detected in the magnetosphere by the Low Energy Neutral Atom (LENA) imager on the IMAGE spacecraft. We use this approach to understand the characteristics of the formation of a polar patch seen in the dayside ionosphere. During a period of the 28 March 2001 LENA cusp signal event, the SuperDARN radars at Syowa East, Syowa South, and Kerguelen Island identified large‐scale features of a polar patch. A region of high backscatter power observed by the radars separates into two parts around 77°, and its high‐latitude part moves in the poleward and duskward direction. The separation latitude is about 5° higher than the equatorward boundary of the cusp, which is deduced from the LENA cusp signal. We interpret these observations, including features obtained with other SuperDARN radars in the northern hemisphere, as being due to the IMF BY‐controlled zonal jet flow that occurred during a period of increase in ∣BY/BZ∣, without requiring the change in BY polarity that has been often invoked in previous studies. The sharp equatorward boundary of the radar signatures of the polar patch would be an interface between the preexisting flow generally in the antisunward direction and the enhanced zonal flow. The flow enhancement appears to be a fundamental process that forms the large‐scale polar patch at latitudes several degrees higher than the cusp.