Magnetic flux transfer events (FTEs) are signatures of unsteady magnetic reconnection, often observed at planetary magnetopauses. Their generation mechanism, a key ingredient determining how they regulate the transfer of solar wind energy into magnetospheres, is still largely unknown. We report THEMIS spacecraft observations on 2007‐06‐14 of an FTE generated by multiple X‐line reconnection at the dayside magnetopause. The evidence consists of (1) two oppositely‐directed ion jets converging toward the FTE that was slowly moving southward, (2) the cross‐section of the FTE core being elongated along the magnetopause normal, probably squeezed by the oppositely‐directed jets, and (3) bidirectional field‐aligned fluxes of energetic electrons in the magnetosheath, indicating reconnection on both sides of the FTE. The observations agree well with a global magnetohydrodynamic model of the FTE generation under large geomagnetic dipole tilt, which implies the efficiency of magnetic flux transport into the magnetotail being lower for larger dipole tilt.

Patchy Polar Cap: Patches of enhanced density plasma in the polar ionosphere (or polar cap patches) disturb radio communications and satellite positioning at high latitudes during magnetospheric storms. Using data from Global Positioning System satellites and a high-frequency radar network, Q.-H. Zhang et al. (p. 1597 ) analyzed a magnetospheric storm driven by a strong coronal mass ejection from the Sun and followed the evolution and motion of a patch of ionization throughout the polar cap. The localized dayside flow response to the solar disturbance allowed a patch to be stored and grow in the dayside polar cap, and the gaps between patches were controlled by the onset of magnetic reconnection in the magnetosphere's tail.

Tracking the formation and full evolution of polar cap ionization patches in the polar ionosphere, we directly observe the full Dungey convection cycle for southward interplanetary magnetic field (IMF) conditions. This enables us to study how the Dungey cycle influences the patches' evolution. The patches were initially segmented from the dayside storm enhanced density plume at the equatorward edge of the cusp, by the expansion and contraction of the polar cap boundary due to pulsed dayside magnetopause reconnection, as indicated by in situ Time History of Events and Macroscale Interactions during Substorms (THEMIS) observations. Convection led to the patches entering the polar cap and being transported antisunward, while being continuously monitored by the globally distributed arrays of GPS receivers and Super Dual Auroral Radar Network radars. Changes in convection over time resulted in the patches following a range of trajectories, each of which differed somewhat from the classical twin‐cell convection streamlines. Pulsed nightside reconnection, occurring as part of the magnetospheric substorm cycle, modulated the exit of the patches from the polar cap, as confirmed by coordinated observations of the magnetometer at Tromsø and European Incoherent Scatter Tromsø UHF radar. After exiting the polar cap, the patches broke up into a number of plasma blobs and returned sunward in the auroral return flow of the dawn and/or dusk convection cell. The full circulation time was about 3 h.

Two types of poleward moving plasma concentration enhancements (PMPCEs) were observed during a sequence of pulsed reconnection events, both in the morning convection cell: Type L (low density) was associated with a cusp flow channel and seems likely to have been produced by ionization associated with particle precipitation, while Type H (high density) appeared to originate from the segmentation of the tongue of ionization by the processes which produced the Type L events. As a result, the Type L and Type H PMPCEs were interspersed, producing a complex density structure which underlines the importance of cusp flow channels as a mechanism for segmenting and structuring electron density in the cusp and shows the necessity of differentiating between at least two classes of electron density patches.