Open Magnetic Flux and Magnetic Reconnection During Steady Magnetic Convection Intervals

The Imager for Magnetopause to Aurora Global Exploration (IMAGE) spacecraft was launched in 2000 with several imaging instruments onboard. The Far UltraViolet (FUV) experiment imaged the N2 LBH (Wideband Imaging Camera – WIC-), OI 135.6 nm (Spectrographic Imager –SI13-) and Doppler-shifted Lyman alpha auroral emission (SI12). The Doppler-shifted Lyman-alpha emission allows to monitor the auroral oval both on the day and night sides. Remote sensing of the polar aurora is completed by ground based data of the Super Dual Auroral Radar Network (SuperDARN) that monitors the ionospheric convection flow pattern in the polar region. In the present study, SI12 images are used to estimate the open/closed (o/c) field line boundary location, and monitor its movement. The SuperDARN data are used to compute the electric field of the polar cap at the location of the o/c boundary. The total electric field is then computed along the boundary accounting for its movement applying Faraday’s law, so that the dayside and nightside reconnection voltages can be retrieved. We apply this method to the study of several intervals of steady magnetic convection (SMC). SMC events are intervals of enhanced convection without classical substorm signatures. During these intervals, it is expected that the amount of open magnetic flux remains fairly constant, and it has been suggested that the rate of opening (at the magnetopause) and closure (in the magnetotail) of magnetic flux balance each other. These rates can be expressed as voltages with a positive sign for the opening and a negative sign for closure. The net reconnection voltage then represents the net rate of accumulation of open flux by the magnetosphere. We find that, during SMC intervals, the open magnetic flux varies only slowly, and sometimes remains stationary during several hours. As a consequence, the net voltage often remains close to zero during SMC intervals. Occasionally, we find that an increase in the opening voltage is followed by a similar intensification of the closure voltage after downtail convection of the newly created open flux. The convection time can be roughly estimated and ranges between 20 and 40 minutes, i.e. the typical order of magnitude of the convection time in the magnetosphere.