On October 27th 1984, high‐latitude ionospheric convection was observed by the European incoherent scatter (EISCAT) radar. For a nine‐hour period, simultaneous observations of the interplanetary magnetic field (IMF) were obtained sunward of the Earth's bow shock. During this period, the IMF abruptly turned southward, having previously been predominantly northward for approximately three hours, and a strong enhancement in convection was observed 11 ± 1 minutes later. Using the very high time resolution of the EISCAT data, it is shown that the convection enhancement propagated eastward, around the afternoon magnetic local time sector, at a speed of the order of 1 kms⁻¹. These results are interpreted in terms of the effects of an onset of steady IMF‐geomagnetic field merging and are the first to show how a new pattern of enhanced convection is established in the high latitude ionosphere.