The characteristics of dayside ionospheric convection are studied using Northern Hemispheric SuperDARN data and DMSP particle and flow observations when the interplanetary magnetic field (IMF) was strongly northward during 13:00–15:00 UT on 2 March 2002. Although IMF Bx was positive, which is believed to favour Southern Hemisphere high-latitude reconnection at equinox, a four-cell convection pattern was observed and lasted for more than 1.5 h in the Northern Hemisphere. The reconnection rate derived from an analysis of the Northern Hemisphere SuperDARN data illustrates that the high-latitude reconnection was quasi-periodic, with a period between 4–16 min. A sawtooth-like and reverse-dispersed ion signature was observed by DMSP-F14 in the sunward cusp convection at around 14:41 UT, confirming that the high-latitude reconnection was pulsed. Accompanying the pulsed reconnection, strong antisunward ionospheric flow bursts were observed in the post-noon LLBL region on closed field lines, propagating with the same speed as the plasma convection. DMSP flow data show that a similar flow pattern and particle precipitation occurred in the conjugate Southern Hemisphere. ; This paper was published as Annales Geophysicae, 2006, 24 (8), pp. 2227-2242. Copyright European Geosciences Union. It is also available from http://www.ann-geophys.net/24/2227/2006/angeo-24-2227-2006.html. Doi: 10.5194/angeo-24-2227-2006