Experiments conducted with the Chatanika, Alaska, incoherent scatter radar observed the ionospheric convection pattern equatorward of the noontime cleft. There plasma transport is characterized by low-speed convergence toward a meridian centered somewhat before noon and rotation of the flow into a poleward direction at higher latitudes. For undisturbed conditions there is only weak convection at noon at these latitudes, but the eastward electric field reaches a maximum of 15 mV/m 2--4 hours before and after noon at latitudes between 70 ¿&Lgr; and 74 ¿&Lgr;. During active conditions at the peak of the solar cycle the ionospheric cleft was located within the Chatanika field of view on several occasions. A longitudinally narrow region of rapid poleward convection near noon was not observed; rather, poleward flow occurred over a 3--4 hour spread of local time. For disturbed conditions, the prenoon and postnoon regions of plasma entry into the polar cap were enhanced, and an eastward electric field of 25 mV/m was seen across the 2 hours of local time around noon. High-density F region plasma was observed convecting poleward through the cleft from a source at lower latitudes in the afternoon sector. Such plasma, seen at very high latitudes within the polar cap, servesas a tracer of the convection pattern away from the cleft.