Multi-Scale Ionospheric Poynting Fluxes Using Ground and Space-Based Observations

Three events are presented where high-resolution measurements from the Swarm satellites coincided with excellent F-region ionospheric coverage from The Super Dual Auroral Radar Network (SuperDARN). Large-scale ionospheric convection patterns from SuperDARN, together with field-aligned-current patterns from he Active Magnetosphere and Planetary Response Experiment (AMPERE), provide information on quasi-static ionospheric dynamics traversed by Swarm. Because the Swarm observations and orbital path coincided with favorable SuperDARN/AMPERE observing conditions, it was possible to filter the Swarm electric field observations into a quasi-static component that agreed with the SuperDARN electric field. The residual electric field from Swarm is thus indicative of small- and mesoscale dynamics not captured by the convection and field-aligned current (FAC) patterns. Calculations of the Poynting flux between the different instruments show that dynamics on small-to mesoscales can be highly variable within structures like FACs. In the events shown, small- and medium-scale Poynting fluxes occasionally dominate over those from large-scale processes.