A flux transfer event observed at the magnetopause by the Equator-S spacecraft and in the ionosphere by the CUTLASS HF radar

Observations of a flux transfer event (FTE) have been made simultaneously b y the Equator-S spacecraft near the dayside magnetopause whilst correspondi ng transient plasma flows were seen in the near-conjugate polar ionosphere by the CUTLASS Finland HF radar. Prior to the occurrence of the FTE, the ma gnetometer on the WIND spacecraft similar to 226 R-E upstream of the Earth in the solar wind detected a southward turning of the interplanetary magnet ic field (IMF) which is estimated to have reached the subsolar magnetopause similar to 77 min later. Shortly afterwards the Equator-S magnetometer obs erved a typical bipolar FTE signature in the magnetic field component norma l to the magnetopause, just inside the magnetosphere. Almost simultaneously the CUTLASS Finland radar observed a strong transient flow in the F region plasma between 78 degrees and 83 degrees magnetic latitude, near the ionos pheric region predicted to map along geomagnetic field lines to the spacecr aft. The flow signature (and the data set as a whole) is found to be fully consistent with the view that the FTE was formed by a burst of magnetopause reconnection.