scholarly journals Anomalous nighttime electron temperatures over Millstone Hill: a statistical study

2004 ◽  
Vol 22 (2) ◽  
pp. 431-439 ◽  
Author(s):  
V. V. Lobzin ◽  
A. V. Pavlov

Abstract. A statistical study of anomalous nighttime electron temperature enhancements, NETEs, observed on 336 nights during Millstone Hill radar measurements on 730 nights from 1976 to 2001 is carried out. NETEs are most frequent in winter and in autumn. The NETE occurrence has a maximum probability in February and a minimum probability in July. The asymmetry between spring and autumn NETE occurrences is found for NETEs, which are observed during geomagnetially quiet time periods. The calculated value of the NETE occurrence probability is decreased with the solar activity index F10.7 increase. The increase in a 3-h geomagnetic index Kp or the decrease in a 1-h geomagnetic index Dst leads to the increase in the NETE occurrence probability. This tendency is more pronounced for current values of Kp or Dst rather than for delayed ones and becomes more weak with the delay increase. The NETEs are most likely to begin between 19:00 and 20:00 UT. The studied NETEs are characterized by the most typical duration from 1 to 3h with the percentage peak between 1 and 2h. The electron temperature increases are predominately between 100K and 300K. We did not find any relationship between the amplitude and duration of the NETEs studied. It is shown that there is a tendency for the NETE amplitude to increase if the value of Kp or ∣Dst∣ increases. To determine whether there exists a difference between NETEs observed during different solar cycles, we chose the data subsets corresponding to 21 and 22solar cycles and performed the statistical studies for each subset. It was found that, within the errors, the corresponding dependencies are the same for the cycles considered and for the entire data set. Key words. Ionosphere (plasma temperature and density; ionospheric disturbances; modeling and forecasting)

2020 ◽  
Vol 494 (2) ◽  
pp. 2498-2508 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zubair I Shaikh ◽  
Anil N Raghav ◽  
Geeta Vichare ◽  
Ankush Bhaskar ◽  
Wageesh Mishra

ABSTRACT Planar magnetic structures (PMS) are often observed in sheath regions driven by interplanetary coronal mass ejections (ICMEs) and in corotating interaction regions (CIRs). Here, we study plasma properties statistically within planar and non-planar ICME sheath regions using in situ data from the Advanced Composition Explore (ACE) spacecraft. The study includes 420 ICME-driven sheaths from 1998–2017. We found that 146 ($\sim 35{{\ \rm per\ cent}}$) ICME-driven sheaths are planar, whereas 274 ($\sim 65{{\ \rm per\ cent}}$) are non-planar. This study found that the average plasma temperature, density, speed, plasma beta, thermal pressure and magnetic pressure are higher in planar sheaths than in non-planar sheaths. This implies that high compression plays an essential role in the formation of PMS in sheath regions. Interestingly, our analysis reveals explicitly that the strength of the southward/northward magnetic field component is almost double in planar sheath regions compared with non-planar sheath regions. This suggests that planar sheaths are more geoeffective than non-planar sheaths.


2021 ◽  
Vol 19 (10) ◽  
pp. 01-07
Author(s):  
M.H. Asmaa ◽  
Sami A. Habana

Electron thickness and temperature of laser prompted Iron plasma boundaries, among different boundaries, were estimated. Plasma was delivered through the connection of high pinnacle power Nd: YAG laser at the key frequency of 1064 nm with a pellet target contains a limited quantity of lipstick from nearby business sectors. Lines from Fe II at 238.502 nm, Fe II at 254.904 nm, Fe II at 262.370 nm, Fe II at 286.545 nm and Fe I at 349.779 nm were utilized to assess the plasma boundaries. The current investigation was completed to assess electron temperature (Te), electron thickness (ne), plasma recurrence, Debye length and Debye number (ND). Laser-incited breakdown spectroscopy LIBS method was used for examining and deciding ghastly discharge lines. ID of change lines from all spectra was completed by contrasting ghostly lines and NIST nuclear data set.


2017 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 5-8
Author(s):  
Линь Ганхуа ◽  
Lin Ganghua ◽  
Ван Сяо-Фань ◽  
Wang Xiao Fan ◽  
Ян Сяо ◽  
...  

This article introduces our ongoing project “Construction of a Century Solar Chromosphere Data Set for Solar Activity Related Research”. Solar activities are the major sources of space weather that affects human lives. Some of the serious space weather consequences, for instance, include interruption of space communication and navigation, compromising the safety of astronauts and satellites, and damaging power grids. Therefore, the solar activity research has both scientific and social impacts. The major database is built up from digitized and standardized film data obtained by several observatories around the world and covers a timespan more than 100 years. After careful calibration, we will develop feature extraction and data mining tools and provide them together with the comprehensive database for the astronomical community. Our final goal is to address several physical issues: filament behavior in solar cycles, abnormal behavior of solar cycle 24, large-scale solar eruptions, and sympathetic remote brightenings. Significant progresses are expected in data mining algorithms and software development, which will benefit the scientific analysis and eventually advance our understanding of solar cycles.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vertti Tarvus ◽  
Lucile Turc ◽  
Markus Battarbee ◽  
Jonas Suni ◽  
Xóchitl Blanco-Cano ◽  
...  

Abstract. The foreshock located upstream of Earth's bow shock hosts a wide variety of phenomena related to the reflection of solar wind particles from the bow shock and the subsequent formation of ultra-low frequency (ULF) waves. In this work, we investigate foreshock cavitons, which are transient structures resulting from the non-linear evolution of ULF waves, and spontaneous hot flow anomalies (SHFAs), which evolve from cavitons as they accumulate suprathermal ions while being carried to the bow shock by the solar wind. Using the global hybrid-Vlasov simulation model Vlasiator, we have conducted a statistical study in which we track the motion of individual cavitons and SHFAs in order to examine their properties and evolution. In our simulation run where the interplanetary magnetic field (IMF) is directed at a sunward-southward angle of 45 degrees, continuous formation of cavitons is found up to ~ 11 Earth radii (RE) from the bow shock (along the IMF direction), and caviton-to-SHFA evolution takes place within ~ 2 RE from the shock. A third of the cavitons in our run evolve into SHFAs, and we find a comparable amount of SHFAs forming independently near the bow shock. We compare the properties of cavitons and SHFAs to prior spacecraft observations and simulations, finding good agreement. We also investigate the variation of the properties as a function of position in the foreshock, showing that the transients close to the bow shock are associated with larger depletions in the plasma density and magnetic field magnitude, along with larger increases in the plasma temperature and the level of bulk flow deflection. Our measurements of the propagation velocities of cavitons and SHFAs agree with earlier studies, showing that the transients propagate sunward in the solar wind rest frame. We show that SHFAs have a greater solar wind rest frame propagation speed than cavitons, which is related to an increase in the magnetosonic speed near the bow shock.


2021 ◽  
Vol 39 (5) ◽  
pp. 911-928
Author(s):  
Vertti Tarvus ◽  
Lucile Turc ◽  
Markus Battarbee ◽  
Jonas Suni ◽  
Xóchitl Blanco-Cano ◽  
...  

Abstract. The foreshock located upstream of Earth's bow shock hosts a wide variety of phenomena related to the reflection of solar wind particles from the bow shock and the subsequent formation of ultra-low-frequency (ULF) waves. In this work, we investigate foreshock cavitons, which are transient structures resulting from the non-linear evolution of ULF waves, and spontaneous hot flow anomalies (SHFAs), which are thought to evolve from cavitons as they accumulate suprathermal ions while being carried to the bow shock by the solar wind. Using the global hybrid-Vlasov simulation model Vlasiator, we have conducted a statistical study in which we track the motion of individual cavitons and SHFAs in order to examine their properties and evolution. In our simulation run where the interplanetary magnetic field (IMF) is directed at a sunward–southward angle of 45∘, continuous formation of cavitons is found up to ∼11 Earth radii (RE) from the bow shock (along the IMF direction), and caviton-to-SHFA evolution takes place within ∼2 RE from the shock. A third of the cavitons in our run evolve into SHFAs, and we find a comparable amount of SHFAs forming independently near the bow shock. We compare the properties of cavitons and SHFAs to prior spacecraft observations and simulations, finding good agreement. We also investigate the variation of the properties as a function of position in the foreshock, showing that transients close to the bow shock are associated with larger depletions in the plasma density and magnetic field magnitude, along with larger increases in the plasma temperature and the level of bulk flow deflection. Our measurements of the propagation velocities of cavitons and SHFAs agree with earlier studies, showing that the transients propagate sunward in the solar wind rest frame. We show that SHFAs have a greater solar wind rest frame propagation speed than cavitons, which is related to an increase in the magnetosonic speed near the bow shock.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Niloufar Nowrouzi ◽  
Lynn Kistler ◽  
Eric Lund ◽  
Kai Zhao

<p>Sawtooth events are repeated injections of energetic particles at geosynchronous orbit. Although studies have shown that 94% of sawtooth events occur during  magnetic storm times, the main factor that causes a sawtooth event is unknown. Simulations have suggested that heavy ions like O<sup>+</sup> may play a role in driving the sawtooth mode by increasing the magnetotail pressure and causing the magnetic tail to stretch. O<sup>+</sup> ions located in the nightside auroral region have a direct access to the near-earth plasma-sheet. O<sup>+</sup> in the dayside cusp can reach to the midtail plasma-sheet when the convection velocity is sufficiently strong. Whether the dayside or nightside source is more important is not known.</p><p>We show results of a statistical study of the variation of the O+ and H+ outflow flux during sawtooth events for SIR and ICME sawtooth events. We perform a superposed epoch analysis of the ion outflow using the TEAMS (Time-of-Flight Energy Angle Mass Spectrograph) instrument on the FAST spacecraft. TEAMS measures the ion composition over the energy range of 1 eV e<sup>-1</sup> to 12 keV e<sup>-1</sup>.  We have done major corrections and calibrations (producing 3D data set, anode calibration, mass classification, removing ram effect and incorporating dead time corrections) on TEAMS data and produced a data set for four data species (H<sup>+</sup>, O<sup>+</sup>, and He<sup>+</sup>). From 1996 to 2007, we have data for 133 orbits of CME-driven and for 103 orbits of SIR-driven sawtooth events with an altitude above 1500 km. We found that:</p><ul><li>the averaged O<sup>+</sup> outflow flux is more intense in the cusp dayside than in the nightside, before and after onset time.</li> <li><span>Before onset, an intense averaged outflow flux in the dawnside of CME events is seen. This outflow decreases after onset time.</span></li> <li><span>In both CME-driven and SIR-driven, the averaged O</span><sup>+</sup><span> outflow increases after onset time, in the nightside, cusp dayside. This increase is greater on the nightside than in the cusp.</span></li> </ul><p>We will develop this study by performing a similar statistical study for H<sup>+</sup> outflow and finally will compare the H<sup>+</sup> result with the O<sup>+ </sup>result.</p>


1999 ◽  
Vol 17 (3) ◽  
pp. 389-404 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. Förster ◽  
J. C. Foster ◽  
J. Smilauer ◽  
K. Kudela ◽  
A. V. Mikhailov

Abstract. During a nearby passage of the Active satellite above the Millstone Hill radar on 21 March 1990 at local sunset, the satellite and the radar performed simultaneous measurements of upper ionospheric parameters in nearly the same spatial volume. For this purpose the radar carried out a special azimuth-elevation scan to track the satellite. Direct comparisons of radar data and in situ satellite measurements have been carried out quite rarely. In this case, the coincidence of co-ordinated measurements and active ionospheric-magnetospheric processes during an extended storm recovery phase presents a unique occasion resulting in a very valuable data set. The measurements show generally good agreement both during quiet prestorm and storm conditions and the combination of radar and satellite observations gives a more comprehensive picture of the physical processes involved. We find a close relationship between the rapid westward ion drift peak at subauroral latitudes (SAID event) and the occurrence of a stable auroral red (SAR) arc observed after sunset by an all-sky imager and reported in an earlier study of this event. The SAID electric field is caused by the penetration of energetic ions with energies between about 1 keV and 100 keV into the outer plasmasphere to a latitude equatorward of the extent of the plasmasheet electrons. Charge separation results in the observed polarisation field and the SAID. Unusually high molecular ion densities measured by the satellite at altitudes of 700-870 km at subauroral and auroral latitudes point on strong upward-directed ion acceleration processes and an intense neutral gas upwelling. These structures are collocated with a narrow trough in electron density and an electron temperature peak as observed simultaneously by the radar and the satellite probes.Key words. Ionosphere (ionosphere-magnetosphere interactions; plasma temperature and density); Magnetospheric physics (plasmasphere).


2004 ◽  
Vol 22 (4) ◽  
pp. 1171-1176 ◽  
Author(s):  
E. M. Apostolov ◽  
D. Altadill ◽  
M. Todorova

Abstract. Solar cycle variations of the amplitudes of the 27-day solar rotation period reflected in the geomagnetic activity index Ap, solar radio flux F10.7cm and critical frequency foF2 for mid-latitude ionosonde station Moscow from the maximum of sunspot cycle 18 to the maximum of cycle 23 are examined. The analysis shows that there are distinct enhancements of the 27-day amplitudes for foF2 and Ap in the late declining phase of each solar cycle while the amplitudes for F10.7cm decrease gradually, and the foF2 and Ap amplitude peaks are much larger for even-numbered solar cycles than for the odd ones. Additionally, we found the same even-high and odd-low pattern of foF2 for other mid-latitude ionosonde stations in Northern and Southern Hemispheres. This property suggests that there exists a 22-year cycle in the F2-layer variability coupled with the 22-year cycle in the 27-day recurrence of geomagnetic activity. Key words. Ionosphere (mid-latitude ionosphere; ionosphere- magnetosphere interactions) – Magnetospheric physics (solar wind-magnetosphere interactions)


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