On the relationship of SAPS to storm-enhanced density

We use magnetic field-aligned mapping between the ionosphere and the magnetosphere to intercompare ground-based observations of storm enhanced density (SED), and plasmasphere drainage plumes imaged from space by the IMAGE EUV imager, with the enhanced inner-magnetosphere/ionosphere SAPS electric field which develops during large storms. We find that the inner edge of the SAPS electric field overlaps the erosion plume and that plume material is carried sunward in the SAPS overlap region. The two phenomena, SED in the ionosphere and the erosion plume at magnetospheric heights, define a common trajectory for sunward-propagating cold plasma fluxes in the midnight—dusk–postnoon sector. The SAPS channel at ionospheric heights and its projection into the equatorial plane serve to define the sharp outer boundary of the erosion plume. The SAPS electric field abuts and overlaps both the plasmasphere boundary layer and the plasmasphere erosion plume from pre-midnight through post-noon local times.