Solar wind modulation of the auroral zone geomagnetic activity when the interplanetary magnetic field has a strong northward component

1989 ◽  
Vol 94 (A5) ◽  
pp. 5479 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. Hruška ◽  
J. Hruška
2015 ◽  
Vol 1 (3) ◽  
pp. 11-20 ◽  
Author(s):  
Надежда Куражковская ◽  
Nadezhda Kurazhkovskaya ◽  
Борис Клайн ◽  
Boris Klain

We present the results of investigation of the influence of geomagnetic activity, solar wind and parameters of the interplanetary magnetic field (IMF) on properties of the intermittency of midlatitude burst series of Pi2 geomagnetic pulsations observed during magnetospheric substorms on the nightside (substorm Pi2) and in the absence of these phenomena (nonsub-storm Pi2). We considered the index α as a main characteristic of intermittency of substorm and nonsubstorm Pi2 pulsations. The index α characterizes the slope of the cumulative distribution function of Pi2 burst amplitudes. The study indicated that the value and dynamics of the index α varies depending on the planetary geomagnetic activity, auroral activity and the intensity of magnetospheric ring currents. In addition, the forms of dependences of the index α on the density n, velocity V, dynamic pressure Pd of the solar wind and IMF Bx-component are different. The behavior of the index α depending on the module of B, By- and Bz-components is similar. We found some critical values of V, Pd, B, By- and Bz-components, after reaching of which the turbulence of the magnetotail plasma during substorm development is decreased. The revealed patterns of the intermittency of Pi2 pulsations can be used for qualitative assessment of turbulence level in the magnetotail plasma depending on changing interplanetary conditions.


2013 ◽  
Vol 31 (11) ◽  
pp. 1979-1992 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. Lockwood ◽  
L. Barnard ◽  
H. Nevanlinna ◽  
M. J. Owens ◽  
R. G. Harrison ◽  
...  

Abstract. We present a new reconstruction of the interplanetary magnetic field (IMF, B) for 1846–2012 with a full analysis of errors, based on the homogeneously constructed IDV(1d) composite of geomagnetic activity presented in Part 1 (Lockwood et al., 2013a). Analysis of the dependence of the commonly used geomagnetic indices on solar wind parameters is presented which helps explain why annual means of interdiurnal range data, such as the new composite, depend only on the IMF with only a very weak influence of the solar wind flow speed. The best results are obtained using a polynomial (rather than a linear) fit of the form B = χ · (IDV(1d) − β)α with best-fit coefficients χ = 3.469, β = 1.393 nT, and α = 0.420. The results are contrasted with the reconstruction of the IMF since 1835 by Svalgaard and Cliver (2010).


Author(s):  
Pandey A.C. ◽  
◽  
Sham Singh ◽  
Dinesh Kumar Pathak ◽  
Archana Shukla ◽  
...  

Yearly averages of geomagnetic activity indices Kp and Ap for the years 1984 to 2018 be compared to the relevant averages of VxBs, where V is the solar wind velocity and Bs is the southward interplanetary magnetic field (IMF) component. The correlation of both quantities is known to be rather good. Comparing the averages of Ap and Kp with V and Bs separately. We found that, during the declining phase of solar cycle, V and during the ascending phase Bs have more influence on Ap and Kp indices. According to this observation the 27 days and semiannual, Ap and Kp variations be analysed discretely for years after and before sunspot minima. The time intervals prior to sunspot minima with a significant 27-day recurrent period of the IMF structure and those intervals after sunspot minima with a significant 28 to28.5 day recurrent phase of the structure be used. The averaged spectra of the two Ap and Kp data sets obviously show a period of 27 days before and a period of 28 to 29 days after sunspot minimum.


Author(s):  
Charles F. Kennel

Even if a steady convection state could exist in principle, the magnetosphere will be rarely in it, since the interplanetary magnetic field is hardly ever stationary over the 2-4 hour convection cycle (Rostoker et al., 1988). Indeed, the hourly average north-south component of the interplanetary field retained the same sign for two consecutive hours only 12.2% of the time during solar cycles 20 and 21 (Hapgood et al., 1991). If only for this reason, we cannot avoid dealing with time-dependent convection. In this section, we take up one method of coping with the issue. Correlation studies take advantage of solar wind variability without ever needing to consider the precise nature of the time-dependent response of the magnetosphere. Though laborious, they are a procedurally straightforward way to test the viscous and reconnection models of convection. Geomagnetic activity, the response of geomagnetic field to currents flowing in the ionosphere and in space, has been monitored in an increasingly systematic way since the beginning of the eighteenth century. Today, a worldwide network of ground stations provides continuous records of the magnetic field at many different locations on the earth’s surface. Before computational data displays enabled large quantities of data to be summarized at a glance, the complex multi-station records were combined into single parameters called geomagnetic indices, which were designed to characterize one aspect or another of geomagnetic activity on a global scale. We will refer frequently to the auroral electrojet (AE) index, which was designed by Davis and Sugiura (1966) as a measure of electrojet activity in the auroral zone. The index is derived from the horizontal, northern component of the geomagnetic perturbation field measured at a number of observatories in the northern hemisphere. The number of observing stations contributing to the index is occasionally indicated in parentheses as AE(12) or AE(32), and so on. The maximum and minimum perturbations recorded at any given time at the stations in the AE network are called the AU and AL indices, respectively, for “upper” and “lower.” These provide a measure of the westward and eastward electrojet strengths. The difference between AU and AL is the AE index.


2013 ◽  
Vol 31 (11) ◽  
pp. 1957-1977 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. Lockwood ◽  
L. Barnard ◽  
H. Nevanlinna ◽  
M. J. Owens ◽  
R. G. Harrison ◽  
...  

Abstract. We present a new composite of geomagnetic activity which is designed to be as homogeneous in its construction as possible. This is done by only combining data that, by virtue of the locations of the source observatories used, have similar responses to solar wind and IMF (interplanetary magnetic field) variations. This will enable us (in Part 2, Lockwood et al., 2013a) to use the new index to reconstruct the interplanetary magnetic field, B, back to 1846 with a full analysis of errors. Allowance is made for the effects of secular change in the geomagnetic field. The composite uses interdiurnal variation data from Helsinki for 1845–1890 (inclusive) and 1893–1896 and from Eskdalemuir from 1911 to the present. The gaps are filled using data from the Potsdam (1891–1892 and 1897–1907) and the nearby Seddin observatories (1908–1910) and intercalibration achieved using the Potsdam–Seddin sequence. The new index is termed IDV(1d) because it employs many of the principles of the IDV index derived by Svalgaard and Cliver (2010), inspired by the u index of Bartels (1932); however, we revert to using one-day (1d) means, as employed by Bartels, because the use of near-midnight values in IDV introduces contamination by the substorm current wedge auroral electrojet, giving noise and a dependence on solar wind speed that varies with latitude. The composite is compared with independent, early data from European-sector stations, Greenwich, St Petersburg, Parc St Maur, and Ekaterinburg, as well as the composite u index, compiled from 2–6 stations by Bartels, and the IDV index of Svalgaard and Cliver. Agreement is found to be extremely good in all cases, except two. Firstly, the Greenwich data are shown to have gradually degraded in quality until new instrumentation was installed in 1915. Secondly, we infer that the Bartels u index is increasingly unreliable before about 1886 and overestimates the solar cycle amplitude between 1872 and 1883 and this is amplified in the proxy data used before 1872. This is therefore also true of the IDV index which makes direct use of the u index values.


2012 ◽  
Vol 2 (10) ◽  
pp. 1-3 ◽  
Author(s):  
Praveen Kumar Gupta ◽  
◽  
Puspraj Singh Puspraj Singh ◽  
Puspraj Singh Puspraj Singh ◽  
P. K. Chamadia P. K. Chamadia

2005 ◽  
Vol 23 (4) ◽  
pp. 1405-1431 ◽  
Author(s):  
E. J. Bunce ◽  
S. W. H. Cowley ◽  
S. E. Milan

Abstract. Dayside UV emissions in Saturn's polar ionosphere have been suggested to be the first observational evidence of the kronian "cusp" (Gérard et al., 2004). The emission has two distinct states. The first is a bright arc-like feature located in the pre-noon sector, and the second is a more diffuse "spot" of aurora which lies poleward of the general location of the main auroral oval, which may be related to different upstream interplanetary magnetic field (IMF) orientations. Here we take up the suggestion that these emissions correspond to the cusp. However, direct precipitation of electrons in the cusp regions is not capable of producing significant UV aurora. We have therefore investigated the possibility that the observed UV emissions are associated with reconnection occurring at the dayside magnetopause, possibly pulsed, akin to flux transfer events seen at the Earth. We devise a conceptual model of pulsed reconnection at the low-latitude dayside magnetopause for the case of northwards IMF which will give rise to pulsed twin-vortical flows in the magnetosphere and ionosphere in the vicinity of the open-closed field-line boundary, and hence to bi-polar field-aligned currents centred in the vortical flows. During intervals of high-latitude lobe reconnection for southward IMF, we also expect to have pulsed twin-vortical flows and corresponding bi-polar field-aligned currents. The vortical flows in this case, however, are displaced poleward of the open-closed field line boundary, and are reversed in sense, such that the field-aligned currents are also reversed. For both cases of northward and southward IMF we have also for the first time included the effects associated with the IMF By effect. We also include the modulation introduced by the structured nature of the solar wind and IMF at Saturn's orbit by developing "slow" and "fast" flow models corresponding to intermediate and high strength IMF respectively. We then consider the conditions under which the plasma populations appropriate to either sub-solar reconnection or high-latitude lobe reconnection can carry the currents indicated. We have estimated the field-aligned voltages required, the resulting precipitating particle energy fluxes, and the consequent auroral output. Overall our model of pulsed reconnection under conditions of northwards and southwards IMF, and for varying orientations of IMF By, is found to produce a range of UV emission intensities and geometries which is in good agreement with the data presented by Gérard et al. (2004). The recent HST-Cassini solar wind campaign provides a unique opportunity to test the theoretical ideas presented here.


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