Wiley, Journal of Geophysical Research. Space Physics, 5(120), p. 3525-3534
DOI: 10.1002/2014ja020912
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Recently, Cluster observations have revealed the presence of new regions of solar wind plasma entry at the high latitude magnetospheric lobes tailward of the cusp region, mostly during periods of northward IMF. In this study, observations from the GUVI experiment onboard the TIMED spacecraft and WIC imager onboard the IMAGE satellite are used to investigate a possible link between solar wind entry and the formation of transpolar arcs in the polar cap. We focus on a case when transpolar arc formation was observed twice right after the two solar wind entry events were detected by the Cluster spacecraft. In addition, GUVI and IMAGE observations show a simultaneous occurrence of auroral activity at low and high latitudes after the second entry event, possibly indicating a two-part structure of the continuous band of the transpolar arc.