Combined incoherent scatter radar and Fabry‐Perot interferometer measurements of frictional heating effects over Millstone Hill during March 7–10, 1989

We introduce a methodology to calculate the effects of frictional heating associated with geomagnetic activity using simultaneous incoherent scatter radar and Fabry‐Perot interferometer measurements. Vector measurements of ion drift from radar backscatter and neutral wind from optical shifts in the atomic oxygen red line over Millstone Hill, Massachusetts (43°N) for the nights of March 7–10, 1989 are presented and are characterized by the magnetic storm activity which prevailed. We combine these measurements to calculate differences in the ion and neutral velocity fields which approach 350 m/s during the most geomagnetically active period that we monitored near 01 UT on March 9. This velocity difference results in a 110°K heating of the ion gas at that time.