Abstract. We have studied the negative magnetic bay associated with the substorm that occurred on April 20, 1993, and have found that it is markedly enhanced at the daytime dip equator, coherent with that at afternoon subauroral latitudes. The amplitude of the negative bay decreases monotonously with the latitude, but it is amplified at the dip equator by a factor of 2.5 compared to the low-latitude negative bay. This latitudinal profile implies that in addition to the three-dimensional current system in the magnetosphere, DP ionospheric currents originating in the polar ionosphere contribute greatly to negative bays. Penetration of the convection electric field and the effect of a shielding electric field due to Region 2 (R2) field-aligned currents (FACs) are examined on the basis of European Incoherent Scatter (EISCAT) and International Monitor for Auroral Geomagnetic Effects (IMAGE) magnetometer observations made in the afternoon sector. The northward electric field at EISCAT (66 ø corrected geomagnetic latitude (CGMLAT)) is well correlated with the magnetic field X component at Nurmijfirvi (56 ø CGMLAT) during the presubstorm period, but the coherency breaks down during the substorm cycle. By assuming that the R2 FACs intensify the northward electric field at EISCAT but reduce it at Nurmijfirvi, we demonstrate that the R2 FACs grow concurrently, although delay by some 17 min, with the convection electric field. Our analytical results indicate that the convection electric field decreases abruptly during the substorm and that the shielding electric field overcomes the convection electric field at around the peak of the negative bay, owing to its delayed reaction. The equatorial negative bay is thus due to an overshielding effect caused by the electric field associated with the R2 FACs. IntroductionPenetration of the magnetospheric convection electric field to the midlatitude and low-latitude ionosphere has been studied using data obtained from In this paper we first report a new observational finding: a negative magnetic bay associated with a substorm is markedly enhanced at the daytime dip equator, coherent with the negative bay at afternoon high-latitude stations. In addition, we provide direct evidence based on EISCAT data for a rapid decrease in the convection electric field that penetrates to the equator, causing a large-amplitude negative deflection at dip 23,251

Equatorial counterelectrojet (CEJ) events are analyzed in association with changes in the interplanetary magnetic field (IMF), polar cap potential (PCP), and electric field measured in the equatorial ionosphere. In one event on 16 July 1995, the equatorial CEJ was observed at the afternoon dip equator during the recovery phase of the substorm when the IMF turned northward. Rapid decreases in the PCP and in the auroral electrojet occurred simultaneously with the equatorial CEJ, suggesting instantaneous equatorward penetration of the rapid decrease in the electric field associated with the region 1 field‐aligned currents (R1 FACs) under the condition of a well‐developed shielding electric field due to the R2 FACs. In the other event on 8 April 1993, the equatorial CEJ associated with the northward turning of the IMF was directly related to a rapid decrease in the equatorial electric field measured by the Jicamarca incoherent scatter radar as well as to a decrease in the PCP. We confirm the scenario for the substorm‐associated equatorial CEJ as caused by the dominant R2 FACs when the R1 FACs decrease abruptly because of the northward turning of the IMF. We also suggest that the DP 1 current system is composed of the Hall currents surrounding the R2 FACs and the equatorial CEJ closing with the R2 FACs, which are superposed on the DP 2 currents caused by the R1 FACs, being dominant when the IMF turns northward. The coherent occurrence of the electric field in the F region with the electric current in the E region at the equator is explained by applying the Earth‐ionosphere waveguide model of Kikuchi and Araki [1979b] as a most promising transmission mechanism. All the conditions for the equatorial CEJ most likely occur during the substorm, but the northward turning of the IMF and the resultant decrease in the PCP play a crucial role under the condition of well‐developed R2 FACs.

[1] We reexamine traveling convection vortices (TCVs) seen by the Magnetometer Array for Cusp and Cleft Studies on 9 November 1993. IMP-8 energetic ion observations confirm that the solar wind pressure variations previously associated with these TCVs were generated by kinetic processes within the Earth's foreshock. As expected during this interval of spiral IMF orientation, fast mode waves launched by the pressure variations first arrived in the equatorial ionosphere near dusk and propagated dawnward. We derive a model for the field-aligned currents generated by transient compressions of the magnetopause and show that it accounts for the number of TCVs seen in the prenoon ionosphere, their sense of rotation, the latitude at which they occur, and their absence in the postnoon ionosphere.

[1] A global Pc5 geomagnetic pulsation (period of $6 min) was observed coherently from the auroral to equatorial latitudes in the local time sector of 0700 -2100 LT during 1834 -1900 UT on 21 April 1993. The Pc5 at the dayside dip equator (Sao Luiz, Brazil, and Ancon, Peru) was characterized by an equatorial enhancement with an enhancement ratio of $4. In the afternoon sector (1200 -1600 magnetic local time) the Pc5 at the auroral latitude was coherent with that at the dip equator within a time resolution of 3 s. The Pc5 amplitudes decreased sharply away from the auroral zone but were enhanced in the dayside dip equator, in a manner that resembled the latitudinal profile of a DP 2 magnetic fluctuation (period of $40 min) studied by Kikuchi et al. [1996] except for the enhanced amplitude in the auroral zone. In the dayside auroral oval the Pc5 fluctuations in the magnetic X/H component were reversed in phase between the morning and afternoon sectors. Additionally, the magnetic Y/D component fluctuations around noon were correlated with the dayside equatorial Pc5. At most dayside middle-/low-latitude stations the Pc5 fluctuations in the H component, which are regarded as evidence for magnetospheric compressions, were strong. However, near the dawn terminator the D component was dominant rather than the H component, suggesting the influences of ionospheric currents originating in the polar region. There was no significant azimuthal phase propagation away from noon for the auroral to equatorial Pc5 signals. The global observational results suggest that the dawn-dusk electric field in the polar ionosphere accompanying a pair of field-aligned currents extends instantaneously to the equatorial ionosphere and completes a DP 2-type ionospheric current system responsible for the global coherent Pc5.

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