SuperDARN Observations of Southern Hemisphere Poleward Moving Radar Auroral Forms

Poleward moving radar auroral forms, PMRAFs, are radar signatures of magnetopause reconnection and strong indicators of flux transfer events. Due to a lack of instrumentation, the Southern Hemisphere has historically suffered from a lack of measurements capable of tracking the high density, high velocity plasma associated with PMRAFs. Using SuperDARN’s high resolution imaging dataset and a temporal analysis of the data, we are able to discern features of PMRAFs at a higher resolution. We compare PMAF occurrences to TEC data, as PMAF occurrences have been linked to higher TEC count (Jayachandran et al 2012, Watson et al 2016, Oksavik et al 2015), and calculate the Joule heating caused by each PMRAF event in the upper ionosphere.