Search

Cross‐track ion drifts measured by the Swarm A satellite are compared with colocated line‐of‐sight Super Dual Auroral Radar Network (SuperDARN) velocities in approximately the same directions. More than 200 Swarm A passes over four polar cap SuperDARN radars in the Northern and Southern Hemispheres are considered. Overall, the Swarm‐based velocities are larger than the SuperDARN velocities; the slope of the best fit line to the data is ~0.67. Somewhat stronger differences are found when Swarm A measurements for the entire year 2016 are compared with SuperDARN vector data from global‐scale convection maps. Swarm ion drift data demonstrate known features of the high‐latitude convection patterns, for example, reverse convection cells at interplanetary magnetic field Βz > 0. The latitudes of the convection reversal boundary inferred from SuperDARN are found to be in reasonable agreement with those determined from Swarm A and Swarm B, with Swarm‐based latitudes occurring roughly 1° more equatorward, typically. Key Points: Swarm cross‐track ion drifts are smaller than SuperDARN radar velocitiesOverall Swarm‐SuperDARN differences are by a factor of 1.5 but smaller in many instancesSwarm shows major features of plasma flow patterns and superior in monitoring flow reversals [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]