HF radar observations of Pc 5 field line resonances in the midnight/early morning MLT sector

On a number of occasions The Johns Hopkins University/Applied Physics Laboratory HF radar at Goose Bay, Labrador, has observed the effects of field line resonances on the drift velocities of irregularities in the F region of the high-latitude ionosphere. One of the most interesting sets of resonances occurs near midnight MLT and may be associated with shear in the convective flow in the magnetotail. This paper discusses in detail a particularly clear example which shows field line resonance equatorward of a region of shear flow in the early morning sector. The motions were predominantly in the geomagnetic east-west direction, indicating north-south electric fields. As expected of field line resonance pulsations, these oscillations had pronounced peaks in their latitudinal power distribution. The pulsations could occur simultaneously but remained distinct as the latitude of peak response was observed to vary inversely with the frequency of the pulsation. The authors interpret these features in terms of field line resonance theory and discuss the possible sources of the pulsation energy