Intermediate Layers responses to Geomagnetic Activity During the 2009 Deep Solar Minimum Over the Brazilian Low Latitude Sector

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Angela M Santos ◽  
C G M Brum ◽  
I S Batista ◽  
J H A Sobral ◽  
M A Abdu ◽  
...  
2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ângela Santos ◽  
Christiano Brum ◽  
Inez Batista ◽  
José Sobral ◽  
Mangalathayil Abdu ◽  
...  

Abstract. Intermediate layers (ILs) are regions of enhanced electron density located in the ionospheric valley that extends from the peak altitude of the daytime E-region to the bottom side of the F-region. This work presents the daytime behavior of the ILs parameters (the virtual height - h’IL, and the top frequency - ftIL) over the low latitude region of Cachoeria Paulista (CP, 22.42° S; 45° W, I: −34.4°) for the deepest solar minimum of the last 500 years. In such a unique condition, this research reveals for the first time the ILs' quiet state seasonal behavior as well as its responses to moderate changes in the geomagnetic activity. The main results show that even small variations of geomagnetic activity (quantified by the planetary Kp index) are able to modify the dynamics of the ILs parameters. For the first time, it was observed that during the summer, the h’IL decrease rapidly with the increase of geomagnetic activity mainly in the early morning hours. In the following hours, a smoothed rise of the IL was found in all seasons analyzed. Regarding to frequency, it was observed that after 12:00 LT, there is a tendency of it decreased with the increase of the magnetic disturbances, being this characteristic more intense after 16:00 LT, except in the equinox, when little or no response was found during all the interval analyzed. In addition, it stands out that the annual periodicity of the ftIL was observed while the h’IL presents semiannual component.


2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ângela M. Santos ◽  
Inez S. Batista ◽  
Mangalathayil A. Abdu ◽  
José H. A. Sobral ◽  
Jonas R. Souza

Abstract. In this work, we report for the first time the climatology of intermediate descending layers over Brazilian equatorial and low latitudes regions during the extreme solar minimum period of 2009. The occurrence frequency of this layer is very high, being > 60 % over São Luís (2° S; 44° W, I: −5.7°) and > 90 % in Cachoeira Paulista (22.42° S; 45° W, I: −34.4°). Our results reveal that in most of the cases the intermediate layers (IL’s) appear during the day at altitudes varying from 130 to 180 km and present a descent movement that reaches the lower altitudes (~ 100 km) in a time interval of a few minutes to hours. Differently from other longitudinal sectors, the diurnal tide (24 h) can be considered as the main cause of IL’s for the low latitude region, followed by a smaller dominance of semidiurnal (12 h), terdiurnal (8 h) and quarter-diurnal (6 h) tide components. In the equatorial sector, similar behavior was found, with the exception of the semidiurnal tide, which in general does not appear to influence the IL’s dynamics (except in summer). The IL’s mean descent velocities over São Luís and Cachoeira Paulista show a day-to-day variability that may be associated with gravity waves propagation. Some peculiarities in the IL’s dynamics have been noted, such as the presence of the IL’s during the night hours, ascending IL’s, simultaneous IL’s, and descending IL’s been formed from some connection with the ionospheric F layer. Quite often, these characteristics are observed in the presence of strong signatures in the ionogram F-layer trace similar to those caused by the gravity wave propagation. We will show further that the descending intermediate layer over Brazil can be formed through a process of F1 layer base detachment. Besides that, we will present an interesting case study in which an ascending IL’s, initially detected at ~ 140 km, reached the base of F2 layer, probably due to the gravity wave propagation and/or due to the effect of the prompt penetration electric field.


2014 ◽  
Vol 119 (3) ◽  
pp. 2160-2177 ◽  
Author(s):  
X. Liu ◽  
J. P. Thayer ◽  
A. Burns ◽  
W. Wang ◽  
E. Sutton

2008 ◽  
Vol 26 (4) ◽  
pp. 893-903 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
◽  
◽  

Abstract. Sometimes the ionospheric total electron content (TEC) is significantly enhanced during low geomagnetic activities before storms. In this article, we investigate the characteristics of those interesting TEC enhancements using regional and global TEC data. We analyzed the low-latitude TEC enhancement events that occurred around longitude 120° E on 10 February 2004, 21 January 2004, and 4 March 2001, respectively. The TEC data are derived from regional Global Positioning System (GPS) observations in the Asia/Australia sector as well as global ionospheric maps (GIMs) produced by Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL). Strong enhancements under low geomagnetic activity before the storms are simultaneously presented at low latitudes in the Asia/Australia sector in regional TEC and JPL GIMs. These TEC enhancements are shown to be regional events with longitudinal and latitudinal extent. The regions of TEC enhancements during these events are confined at narrow longitude ranges around longitude 120° E. The latitudinal belts of maxima of enhancements locate around the northern and southern equatorial ionization anomaly (EIA) crests, which are consistent with those low-latitude events presented by Liu et al. (2008). During the 4 March 2001 event, the total plasma density Ni observed by the Defense Meteorological Satellite Program (DMSP) spacecraft F13 at 840 km altitude are of considerably higher values on 4 March than on the previous day in the TEC enhanced regions. Some TEC enhancement events are possibly due to contributions from auroral/magnetospheric origins; while there are also quasi-periodic enhancement events not related to geomagnetic activity and associated probably with planetary wave type oscillations (e.g. the 6 January 1998 event). Further investigation is warrented to identify/separate contributions from possible sources.


2016 ◽  
Vol 34 (12) ◽  
pp. 1159-1164 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pieter Benjamin Kotzé

Abstract. In this paper we use wavelets and Lomb–Scargle spectral analysis techniques to investigate the changing pattern of the different harmonics of the 27-day solar rotation period of the AE (auroral electrojet) index during various phases of different solar cycles between 1960 and 2014. Previous investigations have revealed that the solar minimum of cycles 23–24 exhibited strong 13.5- and 9.0-day recurrence in geomagnetic data in comparison to the usual dominant 27.0-day synodic solar rotation period. Daily mean AE indices are utilized to show how several harmonics of the 27-day recurrent period change during every solar cycle subject to a 95 % confidence rule by performing a wavelet analysis of each individual year's AE indices. Results show that particularly during the solar minimum of 23–24 during 2008 the 27-day period is no longer detectable above the 95 % confidence level. During this interval geomagnetic activity is now dominated by the second (13.5-day) and third (9.0-day) harmonics. A Pearson correlation analysis between AE and various spherical harmonic coefficients describing the solar magnetic field during each Carrington rotation period confirms that the solar dynamo has been dominated by an unusual combination of sectorial harmonic structure during 23–24, which can be responsible for the observed anomalously low solar activity. These findings clearly show that, during the unusual low-activity interval of 2008, auroral geomagnetic activity was predominantly driven by high-speed solar wind streams originating from multiple low-latitude coronal holes distributed at regular solar longitude intervals.


1994 ◽  
Vol 99 (A3) ◽  
pp. 3817 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. E. Greenspan ◽  
W. J. Burke ◽  
F. J. Rich ◽  
W. J. Hughes ◽  
R. A. Heelis

2011 ◽  
Vol 7 (S286) ◽  
pp. 200-209 ◽  
Author(s):  
E. Echer ◽  
B. T. Tsurutani ◽  
W. D. Gonzalez

AbstractThe recent solar minimum (2008-2009) was extreme in several aspects: the sunspot number, Rz, interplanetary magnetic field (IMF) magnitude Bo and solar wind speed Vsw were the lowest during the space era. Furthermore, the variance of the IMF southward Bz component was low. As a consequence of these exceedingly low solar wind parameters, there was a minimum in the energy transfer from solar wind to the magnetosphere, and the geomagnetic activity ap index reached extremely low levels. The minimum in geomagnetic activity was delayed in relation to sunspot cycle minimum. We compare the solar wind and geomagnetic activity observed in this recent minimum with previous solar cycle values during the space era (1964-2010). Moreover, the geomagnetic activity conditions during the current minimum are compared with long term variability during the period of available geomagnetic observations. The extremely low geomagnetic activity observed in this solar minimum was previously recorded only at the end of XIX century and at the beginning of the XX century, and this might be related to the Gleissberg (80-100 years) solar cycle.


2010 ◽  
Vol 115 (A11) ◽  
pp. n/a-n/a ◽  
Author(s):  
R. A. Haaser ◽  
G. D. Earle ◽  
R. A. Heelis ◽  
W. R. Coley ◽  
J. H. Klenzing
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