Evolution of Ionospheric Convection during a Double Transpolar Arc Phenomenon on February 11, 1999

An evolution of ionospheric convection was studied for a double transpolar arc phenomenon on February 11, 1999. While one transpolar arc split from the auroral oval in the morning sector and drifted duskward, another arc appeared in the evening sector. The convection was investigated with three velocity data sets: E B drift velocities from the ASTRID-2 satellite; Ion Driftmeter data from the DMSP satellites; and Doppler-shift data from the Super-DARN radars. We inferred convection cells from these data sets and found that the number of convection cells changed from three to four as the dominance of IMF changed from a negative By to a positive Bz. Our result suggests that the ionospheric convection that has been so far discussed for various conditions of IMF may be applied even to the cases accompanied by transpolar arcs.