scholarly journals The Contribution of Geomagnetic Activity to Ionospheric foF2 Trends at Different Phases of the Solar Cycle by SWM

Atmosphere ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (6) ◽  
pp. 616
Author(s):  
Haimeng Li ◽  
Jing-Song Wang ◽  
Zhou Chen ◽  
Lianqi Xie ◽  
Fan Li ◽  
...  

Solar activity dominates the temporal variability of ionospheric properties, which makes it difficult to identify and isolate the effects of geomagnetic activity on the ionosphere. Therefore, the latter effects on the ionosphere are still unclear. Here, we use the spectral whitening method (SWM)—a proven approach to extract ionospheric perturbations caused by geomagnetic activity—to directly obtain, in isolation, the effects of geomagnetic activity. We study its contribution to the ionosphere for different phases of the solar cycle. The time lag between the solar and geomagnetic activities provides an opportunity to understand the contribution of geomagnetic activity to the perturbation of the ionosphere. The results suggest that this contribution to the ionosphere is significant when geomagnetic activity is at its maximum level, which usually happens in the declining phase of the solar cycle, but the contribution is very weak at the solar minimum and during the ascending phase. Then, by analyzing the contributions in different months, we find that the role of geomagnetic activity is larger around winter but smaller around summer.

2015 ◽  
Vol 87 (3) ◽  
pp. 1717-1726 ◽  
Author(s):  
JULIANA WOJCIECHOWSKI ◽  
ANDRÉ A. PADIAL

One of the main goals of monitoring cyanobacteria blooms in aquatic environments is to reveal the relationship between cyanobacterial abundance and environmental variables. Studies typically correlate data that were simultaneously sampled. However, samplings occur sparsely over time and may not reveal the short-term responses of cyanobacterial abundance to environmental changes. In this study, we tested the hypothesis that stronger cyanobacteria x environment relationships in monitoring are found when the temporal variability of sampling points is incorporated in the statistical analyses. To this end, we investigated relationships between cyanobacteria and seven environmental variables that were sampled twice yearly for three years across 11 reservoirs, and data from an intensive monitoring in one of these reservoirs. Poor correlations were obtained when correlating data simultaneously sampled. In fact, the 'highly recurrent' role of phosphorus in cyanobacteria blooms is not properly observed in all sampling periods. On the other hand, the strongest correlation values for the total phosphorus x cyanobacteria relationship were observed when we used the variation of sampling points. We have also shown that environment variables better explain cyanobacteria when a time lag is considered. We conclude that, in cyanobacteria monitoring, the best approach to reveal determinants of cyanobacteria blooms is to consider environmental variability.


2020 ◽  
Vol 6 (3) ◽  
pp. 81-85
Author(s):  
Aleksandr Mikhalev

In the paper, variations of the night emission intensities in the 557.7 and 630 nm atomic oxygen lines [OI] in 2011–2019 have been analyzed. The analysis is based on data from the ISTP SB RAS Geophysical Observatory. The emission intensities are compared with atmospheric, solar, and geophysical parameters. High correlation coefficients between monthly average and annual average 630.0 nm emission intensities and solar activity indices F10.7 have been obtained. This suggests a key role of solar activity in variations of this emission in the period of interest. Variations of the 557.7 nm emission demonstrate to a greater extent the correlations of the stratospheric zonal wind (QBO.U30 index) with quasi-biennial oscillations. The causes of the weak dependence of the 557.7 nm emission intensity on solar activity in solar cycle 24 are discussed.


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.


2013 ◽  
Vol 31 (12) ◽  
pp. 2147-2156 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. Klenzing ◽  
A. G. Burrell ◽  
R. A. Heelis ◽  
J. D. Huba ◽  
R. Pfaff ◽  
...  

Abstract. During the recent solar minimum, solar activity reached the lowest levels observed during the space age, resulting in a contracted atmosphere. This extremely low solar activity provides an unprecedented opportunity to understand the variability of the Earth's ambient ionosphere. The average E × B drifts measured by the Vector Electric Field Instrument (VEFI) on the Communications/Navigation Outage Forecasting System (C/NOFS) satellite during this period are found to have several differences from the expected climatology based on previous solar minima, including downward drifts in the early afternoon and a weak to non-existent pre-reversal enhancement. Using SAMI2 (Sami2 is Another Model of the Ionosphere) as a computational engine, we investigate the effects of these electrodynamical changes as well as the contraction of the thermosphere and reduced EUV ionization on the ionosphere. The sensitivity of the simulations to wind models is also discussed. These modeled ionospheres are compared to the C/NOFS average topside ion density and composition and Formosa Satellite-3/Constellation Observing System for Meteorology, Ionosphere, and Climate average NmF2 and hmF2. In all cases, incorporating the VEFI drift data significantly improves the model results when compared to both the C/NOFS density data and the F3/C GOX data. Changing the MSIS and EUVAC models produced changes in magnitude, but not morphology with respect to local time. The choice of wind model modulates the resulting topside density and composition, but only the use of the VEFI E × B drifts produces the observed post-sunset drop in the F peak.


The paper discusses the properties of the different effects which have been found to occur in the thermosphere and some conclusions which can be drawn with regard to the physics of the thermosphere. In the discussion of the diurnal variation the emphasis is on the behaviour of the diurnal amplitude in density during the solar cycle. At the height range between 200 and 300 km the amplitude has remarkably increased with decreasing solar activity. The relation between atmospheric density and temperature and the solar e.u.v. flux and the solar 10.7 cm flux—the latter serving as a convenient parameter—is discussed. The observational results for a phaseshift between the variations in the e.u.v. flux (or 10.7 cm flux) and the correlated variations in atmospheric temperature (or density) lie in the range between 0.5 and 2.3 days. During the solar minimum the atmospheric variations which parallel the 10.7 cm flux are far less pronounced than the variations correlated with geomagnetic activity. The phase shift derived from 45 geomagnetic storms and correlated density changes has been found to be 6 ± 3 (m.e.) h.


2011 ◽  
Vol 29 (6) ◽  
pp. 1005-1018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Z. L. Du

Abstract. An integral response model is proposed to describe the relationship between geomagnetic activity (aa index) and solar activity (represented by sunspot number Rz): The aa at a given time t is the integral of Rz at past times (t'≤t) multiplied by an exponential decay factor of the time differences (e−(t−t')/τ), where τ is the decay time scale (~40 months). The correlation coefficient of aa with the reconstructed series based on this model (rf=0.85) is much higher than that of aa with Rz (r0=0.61). If this model is applied to each solar cycle, the correlation coefficient will be higher (rf=0.95). This model can naturally explain some phenomena related to aa and Rz, such as (i) the significant increase in the aa index (and its baseline) over the twentieth century; (ii) the longer lag times of aa to Rz at solar cycle maxima than at minima; and (iii) the variations in the correlations related to solar and Hale cycles. These results demonstrate that aa depends not only on the present Rz but also on past values. The profile of aa can be better predicted from Rz by this model than by point-point correspondence.


2011 ◽  
Vol 11 (10) ◽  
pp. 28477-28498 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. V. Shapiro ◽  
E. Rozanov ◽  
A. I. Shapiro ◽  
S. Wang ◽  
T. Egorova ◽  
...  

Abstract. The mesospheric hydroxyl radical (OH) is mainly produced by the water vapor (H2O) photolysis and could be considered as a proxy for the influence of the solar irradiance variability on the mesosphere. We analyze the tropical mean response of the mesospheric OH and H2O data as observed by the Aura Microwave Limb Sounder (MLS) to 27-day solar variability. The analysis is performed for two time periods corresponding to the different phases of the 11-yr cycle: from December 2004 to December 2005 ("solar maximum" period with a pronounced 27-day solar cycle) and from November 2008 to November 2009 ("solar minimum" period with a vague 27-day solar cycle). We demonstrate, for the first time, that in the mesosphere the daily time series of OH concentrations correlate well with the solar irradiance (correlation coefficients up to 0.79) at zero time-lag. At the same time H2O anticorrelates (correlation coefficients up to −0.74) with the solar irradiance at non-zero time-lag. We found that the response of OH and H2O to the 27-day variability of the solar irradiance is strong for the solar maximum and negligible for the solar minimum conditions. It allows us to suggest that the 27-day cycle in the solar irradiance and in OH and H2O are physically connected.


2014 ◽  
Vol 32 (7) ◽  
pp. 809-816 ◽  
Author(s):  
Y. Q. Hao ◽  
H. Shi ◽  
Z. Xiao ◽  
D. H. Zhang

Abstract. Following prolonged and extremely quiet solar activity from 2008 to 2009, the 24th solar cycle started slowly. It has been almost 5 years since then. The measurement of ionospheric critical frequency (foF2) shows the fact that solar activity has been significantly lower in the first half of cycle 24, compared to the average levels of cycles 19 to 23; the data of global average total electron content (TEC) confirm that the global ionosphere around the cycle 24 peak is much more weakly ionized, in contrast to cycle 23. The weak ionization has been more notable since the year 2012, when both the ionosphere and solar activity were expected to be approaching their maximum level. The undersupply of solar extreme ultraviolet (EUV) irradiance somewhat continues after the 2008–2009 minimum, and is considered to be the main cause of the weak ionization. It further implies that the thermosphere and ionosphere in the first solar cycle of this millennium would probably differ from what we have learned from the previous cycles of the space age.


2020 ◽  
Vol 2020 ◽  
pp. 1-10
Author(s):  
Sibri Alphonse Sandwidi ◽  
Doua Allain Gnabahou ◽  
Frédéric Ouattara

This paper aims to study the foF2 seasonal asymmetry diurnal variation at Dakar station from 1976 to 1995. We show that equinoctial asymmetry is less pronounced and somewhere is absent throughout 21 and 22 solar cycles. The absence of equinoctial asymmetry may be due to Russell-McPherron mechanism and the vertical drift E × B . The solstice anomaly or annual anomaly is always observed throughout both 21 and 22 solar cycles as measured at Dakar ionosonde. The maximum negative value of σfoF2, fairly equal to -65%, is observed during the decreasing phase at solstice time; this value appeared usually at 0200 LT except during the maximum phase during which it is observed at 2300 LT. The maximum positive value, fairly equal to +94%, is observed at 0600 LT during solar minimum at solstice time. This annual asymmetry may be due to neutral composition asymmetric variation and solar radiation annual asymmetry with the solstice time. The semiannual asymmetry is also observed during all solar cycle phases. The maximum positive value (+73%) is observed at 2300 LT during solar maximum, and its maximum negative (-12%) is observed during the increasing phase. We established, as the case of annual asymmetry, that this asymmetry could not be explained by the asymmetry in vertical velocity E × B phenomenon but by the axial mechanism, the “thermospheric spoon” mechanism, and the seasonally varying eddy mixing phenomenon.


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