Response of large-scale ionospheric convection to substorm expansion onsets: A case study

We have studied the response of large-scale ionospheric convection to substorm expansion onsets on the basis of two weak substorms of 1 May 2001, during which a large part of the dawn cell of the two-cell ionospheric convection pattern was monitored by the SuperDARN radars. Ionospheric convection began to enhance first in a localized region of the equatorward part of the dawn cell similar to 2 minutes before the expansion onsets of both substorms and then enhanced in the entire dawn cell successively. The enhanced convection persisted throughout their expansion phase, possibly even near the footprint of a plasma sheet region without fast flows observed by Geotail. These observations suggest that ionospheric convection begins to enhance just before substorm expansion onset and then enhances in the entire cell, possibly regardless of the presence of fast earthward flows in the corresponding plasma sheet region of the magnetotail. The global enhancement of ionospheric convection is consistent with that of magnetotail convection, which also begins just before onset.