CIR versus CME drivers of the ring current during intense magnetic storms

Author(s):  
Michael W. Liemohn ◽  
Matt Jazowski ◽  
Janet U. Kozyra ◽  
Natalia Ganushkina ◽  
Michelle F. Thomsen ◽  
...  

Ninety intense magnetic storms (minimum Dst value of less than −100 nT) from solar cycle 23 (1996–2005) were simulated using the hot electron and ion drift integrator (HEIDI) model. All 90 storm intervals were run with several electric fields and nightside plasma boundary conditions (five run sets). Storms were classified according to their solar wind driver, including corotating interaction regions (CIRs) and interplanetary coronal mass ejections (ICMEs). Data-model comparisons were made against the observed Dst index (specifically, Dst*) and dayside hot-ion measurements from geosynchronous orbiting spacecraft. It is found that the data-model goodness-of-fit values are different for CIR-driven storms relative to ICME-driven storms. The results are also different for the same storm category for different boundary conditions. None of the CIR-driven events was overpredicted by HEIDI, while the dayside comparisons were comparable for the different drivers. The results imply that the outer magnetosphere is responding differently to the two kinds of solar wind drivers, even though the resulting storm size might be similar. That is, for ICME-driven events, magnetospheric currents inside of geosynchronous orbit dominate the Dst perturbation, while for CIR-driven events, currents outside of this boundary have a systematically larger contribution.

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ravindra Desai ◽  
Jonathan Eastwood ◽  
Joseph Eggington ◽  
Mervyn Freeman ◽  
Martin Archer ◽  
...  

<p>Fast-forward interplanetary interplanetary shocks, as occur at the forefront of interplanetary coronal mass ejections and at corotating interaction regions, can rapidly compress the magnetopause inside the drift paths of electrons and protons, and expose geosynchonous satellites directly to the solar wind.  Here, we use Gorgon Global-MHD simulations to study the response of the magnetopause to different fast-forward interplanetary shocks, with strengths extending from the median shocks observed during solar minimum up to that representing an extreme space weather event. The subsequent magnetopause response can be characterised by three distinct phases; an initial acceleration as inertial forces are overcome, a rapid compression well-represented by a power law, and large-scale damped oscillatory motion of the order of an Earth radius, prior to reaching pressure-balance equilibrium. The subsolar magnetopause is found to oscillate with notable frequencies in the range of 2–13 mHz over several periods of diminishing amplitudes.  These results provide an explanation for similar large-scale magnetopause oscillations observed previously during the extreme events of August 1972 and March 1991 and highlight why static magnetopause models break down during periods of strong solar wind driving.</p>


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hannah Ruedisser ◽  
Andreas Windisch ◽  
Ute V. Amerstorfer ◽  
Tanja Amerstorfer ◽  
Christian Moestl ◽  
...  

<p>Interplanetary coronal mass ejections (ICMEs) are one of the main drivers for space weather disturbances. In the past, different machine learning approaches have been used to automatically detect events in existing time series resulting from solar wind in situ data. However, classification, early detection and ultimately forecasting still remain challenges when facing the large amount of data from different instruments. We attempt to further enhance existing convolutional neural network (CNN) models through extending their possibilities to process data from multiple spacecraft and to include a post processing step commonly used in the area of computer vision. Additionally, we make an effort to extend the previously binary classification problem to a multiclass classification, to also include corotating interaction regions (CIRs) into the range of detectable phenomena. Ultimately, we aspire to explore the suitability of several other methods used in time series forecasting, in order to pave the way for the elaboration of an early warning system.</p>


2017 ◽  
Vol 35 (1) ◽  
pp. 147-159 ◽  
Author(s):  
Remi Benacquista ◽  
Sandrine Rochel ◽  
Guy Rolland

Abstract. In this paper, we study the dynamics of magnetic storms due to interplanetary coronal mass ejections (ICMEs). We used multi-epoch superposed epoch analyses (SEAs) with a choice of epoch times based on the structure of the events. By sorting the events with respect to simple large-scale features (presence of a shock, magnetic structure, polarity of magnetic clouds), this method provides an original insight into understanding the variability of magnetic storm dynamics. Our results show the necessity of seeing ICMEs and their preceding sheaths as a whole since each substructure impacts the other and has an effect on its geoeffectiveness. It is shown that the presence of a shock drives the geoeffectiveness of the sheaths, while both the shock and the magnetic structure impact the geoeffectiveness of the ICMEs. In addition, we showed that the ambient solar wind characteristics are not the same for ejecta and magnetic clouds (MCs). The ambient solar wind upstream magnetic clouds are quieter than upstream ejecta and particularly slower. We also focused on the polarity of magnetic clouds since it drives not only their geoeffectiveness but also their temporal dynamics. South–north magnetic clouds (SN-MCs) and north–south magnetic clouds (NS-MCs) show no difference in geoeffectiveness for our sample of events. Lastly, since it is well-known that sequences of events can possibly induce strong magnetic storms, such sequences have been studied using superposed epoch analysis (SEA) for the first time. We found that these sequences of ICMEs are very usual and concern about 40 % of the ICMEs. Furthermore, they cause much more intense magnetic storms than isolated events do.


2021 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Manuela Temmer

AbstractThe Sun, as an active star, is the driver of energetic phenomena that structure interplanetary space and affect planetary atmospheres. The effects of Space Weather on Earth and the solar system is of increasing importance as human spaceflight is preparing for lunar and Mars missions. This review is focusing on the solar perspective of the Space Weather relevant phenomena, coronal mass ejections (CMEs), flares, solar energetic particles (SEPs), and solar wind stream interaction regions (SIR). With the advent of the STEREO mission (launched in 2006), literally, new perspectives were provided that enabled for the first time to study coronal structures and the evolution of activity phenomena in three dimensions. New imaging capabilities, covering the entire Sun-Earth distance range, allowed to seamlessly connect CMEs and their interplanetary counterparts measured in-situ (so called ICMEs). This vastly increased our knowledge and understanding of the dynamics of interplanetary space due to solar activity and fostered the development of Space Weather forecasting models. Moreover, we are facing challenging times gathering new data from two extraordinary missions, NASA’s Parker Solar Probe (launched in 2018) and ESA’s Solar Orbiter (launched in 2020), that will in the near future provide more detailed insight into the solar wind evolution and image CMEs from view points never approached before. The current review builds upon the Living Reviews article by Schwenn from 2006, updating on the Space Weather relevant CME-flare-SEP phenomena from the solar perspective, as observed from multiple viewpoints and their concomitant solar surface signatures.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Huw Morgan

<p>To date, the inner boundary conditions for solar wind models are either directly or indirectly based on magnetic field extrapolation models of the photosphere. Furthermore, between the photosphere and Earth, there are no other direct empirical constraints on models. New breakthroughs in coronal rotation tomography, applied to coronagraph observations, allow maps of the coronal electron density to be made in the heliocentric height range 4-12 solar radii (Rs). We show that these maps (i) give a new empirical boundary condition for solar wind structure at a height where the coronal magnetic field has become radial, thus avoiding the need to model the complex inner coronal magnetic field, and (ii) give accurate rotation rates for the corona, of crucial importance to the accuracy of solar wind models and forecasts.</p>


2019 ◽  
Vol 630 ◽  
pp. A42 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. Myllys ◽  
P. Henri ◽  
M. Galand ◽  
K. L. Heritier ◽  
N. Gilet ◽  
...  

Context. The Rosetta spacecraft escorted comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko from 2014 to September 2016. The mission provided in situ observations of the cometary plasma during different phases of the cometary activity, which enabled us to better understand its evolution as a function of heliocentric distance. Aims. In this study, different electron populations, called warm and hot, observed by the Ion and Electron Sensor (IES) of the Rosetta Plasma Consortium (RPC) are investigated near the comet during the escorting phase of the Rosetta mission. Methods. The estimates for the suprathermal electron densities and temperatures were extracted using IES electron data by fitting a double-kappa function to the measured velocity distributions. The fitting results were validated using observations from other RPC instruments. We give upgraded estimates for the warm and hot population densities compared to values previously shown in literature. Results. The fitted density and temperature estimates for both electron populations seen by IES are expressed as a function of heliocentric distance to study their evolution with the cometary activity. In addition, we studied the dependence between the electron properties and cometocentric distance. Conclusions. We observed that when the neutral outgassing rate of the nucleus is high (i.e., near perihelion) the suprathermal electrons are well characterized by a double-kappa distribution. In addition, warm and hot populations show a significant dependence with the heliocentric distance. The populations become clearly denser near perihelion while their temperatures are observed to remain almost constant. Moreover, the warm electron population density is shown to be strongly dependent on the radial distance from the comet. Finally, based on our results we reject the hypothesis that hot electron population seen by IES consists of solely suprathermal (halo) solar wind electrons, while we suggest that the hot electron population mainly consists of solar wind thermal electrons that have undergone acceleration near the comet.


1997 ◽  
Vol 50 (4) ◽  
pp. 773 ◽  
Author(s):  
Raymond A. Greenwald

The plasma environment extending from the solar surface through interplanetary space to the outermost reaches of the Earth’s atmosphere and magnetic field is dynamic, often disturbed, and capable of harming humans and damaging manmade systems. Disturbances in this environment have been identified as space weather disturbances. At the present time there is growing interest in monitoring and predicting space weather disturbances. In this paper we present some of the difficulties involved in achieving this goal by comparing the processes that drive tropospheric-weather systems with those that drive space-weather systems in the upper atmosphere and ionosphere. The former are driven by pressure gradients which result from processes that heat and cool the atmosphere. The latter are driven by electric fields that result from interactions between the streams of ionised gases emerging from the Sun (solar wind) and the Earth’s magnetosphere. Although the dimensions of the Earth’s magnetosphere are vastly greater than those of tropospheric weather systems, the global space-weather response to changes in the solar wind is much more rapid than the response of tropospheric-weather systems to changing conditions. We shall demonstrate the rapid evolution of space-weather systems in the upper atmosphere through measurements with a global network of radars known as SuperDARN. We shall also describe how the SuperDARN network is evolving, including a newly funded Australian component known as the Tasman International Geospace Environmental Radar (TIGER).


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