Analysis of the effect of ionospheric convection on auroral breakup

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By using polar cap patches detected by an all-sky camera as a tracer, I investigated how the polar cap convection changes near substorm onsets. I found an interesting event in which the motion of polar cap patches drastically changed a few minutes prior to the substorm onset. This suggests an occurrence of enhanced plasma flows across the plasma sheet boundary layer before onsets. That is, magnetic reconnection at the near-Earth plasma sheet takes place before onsets and plays an important role in triggering substorms.