GPS TEC technique for observation of the evolution of substorm particle precipitation

TL;DR: In this article, a new method of tracking substorm particle precipitation using GPS Total Electron Content (TEC) measurements from several GPS receivers was introduced, and particle precipitation signatures associated with two separate substorm events (4 October 2008 and 29 October 2008) were examined.

Abstract: [1] One of the signatures of magnetospheric substorms is the precipitation of high energy particles into the high latitude ionosphere. In this paper, we introduce a new method of tracking substorm particle precipitation using GPS Total Electron Content (TEC) and provide some preliminary observations of precipitation signatures from application of this method. Using TEC measurements from several GPS receivers, we examined particle precipitation signatures associated with two separate substorm events (4 October 2008 and 29 October 2008) and monitored the expansion of the high energy precipitation regions with a higher temporal and spatial resolution than previously available. For each event we have observed TEC signatures associated with substorm particle precipitation along 20 to 25 separate GPS raypaths from up to 7 GPS receivers located in the Canadian Arctic. This is in addition to particle injection signatures found in CLUSTER satellite data and precipitation signatures in ground based riometer data. Signature timing on different raypaths from different stations indicates a mainly northward (tailward) expansion of the precipitation (injection) region with a smaller westward (azimuthal) component for the events studied. By applying a triangulation method, we also calculated propagation velocity of the precipitation boundary in regions covered by our GPS receivers. For each substorm, expansion velocity ranged from 0.3–2 km/s northward and 0–1 km/s westward, and tended to decrease in magnitude at higher latitudes.