Multi-Scale Ionospheric Poynting Fluxes Using Ground and Space-Based
Observations
Abstract
We present three events where high-resolution electric and magnetic
field measurements from the Swarm satellite constellation coincided with
excellent F-region ionospheric coverage from SuperDARN. Large-scale
ionospheric convection patterns from SuperDARN, together with
field-aligned-current patterns from AMPERE, provide information on
quasi-static ionospheric dynamics traversed by Swarm. Because the Swarm
observations and orbital path coincided with favorable SuperDARN/AMPERE
observing conditions, it was possible to filter the Swarm electric field
observations into a quasi-static component that agreed with the
SuperDARN electric field. We contend that the residual electric field
from Swarm is thus indicative of small- and mesoscale dynamics not
captured by the convection and FAC patterns. We compare calculations of
the Poynting flux between the different instruments and show that
dynamics on small- to mesoscales can be highly variable within
structures like field-aligned currents. In the events shown, small- and
medium-scale Poynting fluxes occasionally dominate over that from
large-scale processes.