TCV-like event induced by positive-negative pulse pair of solar wind dynamic pressure

Author(s):  
Anmin Tian ◽  
Alexander Degeling ◽  
Quanqi Shi ◽  
Zanyang Xing

<p>Both simulations and observations had shown that step function-like increase/decrease of solar wind dynamic pressure pulse would excite flow vortex pairs in the dawn and dusk high latitude ionosphere simultaneously. However, some plasma structures, hot flow anomaly, sheath jets etc. existing in the solar wind or magnetosheath are often accompanied with spike-like changes of the dynamic pressure. Whether they can drive the ionospheric vortices or not is still unclear. In this work we report a traveling convection vortex like (TCV-like) event that was induced by a positive-negative pulse pair of dynamic pressure(△p/p~1) accompanying a large scale (~9min) magnetic hole in the solar wind. It is found that following the magnetic hole, two traveling convection vortices first in anticlockwise then in clockwise rotation were detected by geomagnetic stations located along the 10:30MLT meridian. Meanwhile, another pair of ionospheric vortices azimuthally seen up to 3 MLT first in clockwise then in anticlockwise rotation were appeared in the afternoon sector (~14MLT) centered at ~75MLAT with a trend of poleward moving. The duskside vortices were also confirmed by SuperDARN radar data. The processes following magnetosphere struck by a positive-negative pulse pair were simulated and it found that two pairs of flow vortices in the dawn and dusk magnetosphere may provide the field-aligned currents(FACs) required for the flow/current vortices observed in ionosphere. This work provides a way to understand how the momentum and energy injects to the ionosphere under spike-like dynamic pressures imposing on the magnetosphere.</p>

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mengsi Ruan ◽  
Pingbing Zuo ◽  
Zilu Zhou ◽  
Zhenning Shen ◽  
Yi Wang ◽  
...  

Solar wind dynamic pressure pulses (DPPs) are small-scale plasma structures with abrupt and large-amplitude plasma dynamic pressure changes on timescales of seconds to several minutes. Overwhelming majority of DPP events (around 79.13%) reside in large-scale solar wind transients, i.e., coronal mass ejections, stream interaction regions, and complex ejecta. In this study, the intermittency, which is a typical feature of solar wind turbulence, is determined and compared during the time intervals in the undisturbed solar wind and in large-scale solar wind transients with clustered DPP events, respectively, as well as in the undisturbed solar wind without DPPs. The probability distribution functions (PDFs) of the fluctuations of proton density increments normalized to the standard deviation at different time lags in the three types of distinct regions are calculated. The PDFs in the undisturbed solar wind without DPPs are near-Gaussian distributions. However, the PDFs in the solar wind with clustered DPPs are obviously non-Gaussian distributions, and the intermittency is much stronger in the large-scale solar wind transients than that in the undisturbed solar wind. The major components of the DPPs are tangential discontinuities (TDs) and rotational discontinuities (RDs), which are suggested to be formed by compressive magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) turbulence. There are far more TD-type DPPs than RD-type DPPs both in the undisturbed solar wind and large-scale solar wind transients. The results imply that the formation of solar wind DPPs could be associated with solar wind turbulence, and much stronger intermittency may be responsible for the high occurrence rate of DPPs in the large-scale solar wind transients.


2011 ◽  
Vol 2011 ◽  
pp. 1-8 ◽  
Author(s):  
Igino Coco ◽  
Ermanno Amata ◽  
Maria Federica Marcucci ◽  
Danila Ambrosino ◽  
Simon G. Shepherd

We show the results of a statistical study on the effects in the high-latitude ionosphere of abrupt variations of solar wind dynamic pressure, using Super Dual Auroral Radar Network (SuperDARN) data in both hemispheres. We find that, during periods of quiet ionospheric conditions, the amount of radar backscatter increases when a variation in the dynamic pressure occurs, both positive (increase of the pressure) and negative (decrease of the pressure). We also investigate the behaviour of the Cross-Polar Cap Potential (CPCP) during pressure variations and show preliminary results.


1998 ◽  
Vol 22 (9) ◽  
pp. 1305-1308 ◽  
Author(s):  
Y Zhang ◽  
D.J McEwen ◽  
I Oznovich

2011 ◽  
Vol 116 (A10) ◽  
pp. n/a-n/a ◽  
Author(s):  
A. Boudouridis ◽  
L. R. Lyons ◽  
E. Zesta ◽  
J. M. Weygand ◽  
A. J. Ribeiro ◽  
...  

2016 ◽  
Vol 34 (5) ◽  
pp. 493-509 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zheng Xiang ◽  
Binbin Ni ◽  
Chen Zhou ◽  
Zhengyang Zou ◽  
Xudong Gu ◽  
...  

<p><strong>Abstract.</strong> Radiation belt electron flux dropouts are a kind of drastic variation in the Earth's magnetosphere, understanding of which is of both scientific and societal importance. Using electron flux data from a group of 14 satellites, we report multi-satellite simultaneous observations of magnetopause and atmospheric losses of radiation belt electrons during an event of intense solar wind dynamic pressure pulse. When the pulse occurred, magnetopause and atmospheric loss could take effect concurrently contributing to the electron flux dropout. Losses through the magnetopause were observed to be efficient and significant at <i>L</i> ≳ 5, owing to the magnetopause intrusion into <i>L</i> ∼ 6 and outward radial diffusion associated with sharp negative gradient in electron phase space density. Losses to the atmosphere were directly identified from the precipitating electron flux observations, for which pitch angle scattering by plasma waves could be mainly responsible. While the convection and substorm injections strongly enhanced the energetic electron fluxes up to hundreds of keV, they could delay other than avoid the occurrence of electron flux dropout at these energies. It is demonstrated that the pulse-time radiation belt electron flux dropout depends strongly on the specific interplanetary and magnetospheric conditions and that losses through the magnetopause and to the atmosphere and enhancements of substorm injection play an essential role in combination, which should be incorporated as a whole into future simulations for comprehending the nature of radiation belt electron flux dropouts.</p>


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