慢太阳风中的小冕洞风和阿尔芬波

慢太阳风的起源是一个困扰空间物理领域多年的问题,一些研究人员认为慢太阳风中阿尔芬度比较高的部分起源于小冕洞或者是冕洞的边界,不过另外一些研究者发现高阿尔芬度慢太阳风在成分上和低阿尔芬度的慢太阳风并无显著差别.最近的一项研究中发现的慢太阳风中的小冕洞风并没有特别高的阿尔芬度.我们利用一个简单的二维太阳风模型计算了阿尔芬波和小冕洞风的传播;计算结果显示,由于阿尔芬波的传播特性,从小冕洞出发的等离子体和阿尔芬波动在传播到1AU的过程中会发生分离,形成了低阿尔芬度的小冕洞风和高阿尔芬度的普通慢风.这个结果定性地解释了慢太阳风中观测到的小冕洞风和高阿尔芬度慢风的特性,也为解开慢太阳风的起源之谜提供了新的思路.     

基于Weimer模型的高纬地磁扰动预测

地磁扰动是空间天气中的重要现象,对地基技术系统具有重要的影响.准确预报地磁扰动可以有效避免重大灾害发生.本文基于Weimer电势和磁势模型发展了高纬地区地磁扰动的模拟方法,并与地面台站观测数据进行了比较.地表磁场扰动主要受电离层电流系统的影响,利用Weimer模式计算出电离层等效电流分布后,基于毕奥-萨伐尔定律推导了地磁扰动三分量与电流的关系,最终计算出地磁扰动量.模型的输入参数为太阳风速度、太阳风密度、行星际磁场和磁偶极倾角.模型计算结果与不同纬度和经度的地磁台站观测结果对比表明本文的计算方法能有效地模拟地磁暴期间地磁扰动特征.本文结果对今后发展高纬地区地磁场预报模型奠定了重要基础.     

时变行星际太阳风模拟及其结果评估

背景太阳风对于地球附近的空间环境有着重要的影响,三维磁流体力学太阳风模型是背景太阳风研究和预报的重要工具.通过太阳光球磁场数据驱动的边界条件,我们发展了一个时变的行星际三维磁流体力学太阳风模型.使用这个模型,我们模拟了2008年全年的行星际背景太阳风,分析了该年太阳风结构全球特征的演化和行星际局地观测与日冕结构间的联系.实现了一套太阳风连续参数和特征结构模拟质量的定量评估方法.对2008年模拟结果的评估表明,模型较好地重现了背景太阳风的大尺度特征.模拟与观测速度间的相关性系数达到了0.6以上,行星际磁场强度与观测吻合得较好,捕获了全部的行星际磁场极性反转和82.76%的流相互作用区,行星际磁场极性反转的误报率仅为6.67%,流相互作用区的误报率仅为11.11%,两种结构的到达时间误差在1天左右.同时,通过综合分析评估结果,我们明确了高速流结构、内边界磁场分布等模型在进一步改进中需要重点注意的问题.     

行星际背景太阳风的三维MHD数值模拟

近地空间的太阳风参数预报具有重要的科学研究意义和实际应用价值,三维磁流体力学（MHD）数值模拟是太阳风参数预报的重要手段.本文建立了一套基于经验模型的三维MHD数值模型.模型的内边界设置在0.1天文单位（AU）处,在六片网格系统下利用TVD Lax-Friedrich格式求解理想MHD方程组,采用扩散法消除磁场的散度.模型以GONG的观测磁图作为输入数据,利用经验模型并结合卫星观测特征确定内边界条件.边界条件中保留了6个可调参数,以便适当调整参数使其方便适合模拟不同太阳活动期的太阳风.利用该模型分别模拟了2007年和2016年的背景太阳风,得到了太阳风速度、密度、温度和磁场强度,这些参数与ACE/WIND卫星观测符合较好.     

太阳风引起的地磁扰动的参数辨识

作为太阳风引起的地磁扰动的系统辨识一文的姊妹篇,本文利用参数系统辨识方法,对太阳风-磁层耦合系统做了进一步的探讨.根据地磁扰动机制的理论研究,地磁扰动被认为是太阳风能量耦合进入磁层以及由此引起的一系列磁层内能量的输运和耗散的结果.在此基础上,对太阳风-磁层系统的非线性情况进行了讨论,建立了D_st指数与太阳风参量的非线性函数关系,给出了由此得到的地磁扰动计算结果.同时还利用1967年2月3-12日和1980年12月16-23日的两次事件,对已得到的函数关系进行了验证和讨论.验证结果不仅对模型的合理性、普适性做了很好的说明,也表明这种非线性函数关系作为定量的地磁预报模型,具有一定的可信度和实用性.     

太阳高能粒子(SEP)传播数值模拟中的太阳风背景场研究

太阳高能粒子(SEP)事件是一类重要的空间天气灾害性事件,如能准确预报SEP事件,人们便可以采取必要的防护措施,保障卫星、星载设备以及航天员的安全,尽可能地降低经济损失.因此,其数值预报研究在空间天气预报研究中占有很重要的地位.SEP事件中的高能粒子在不同的时间尺度内被耀斑过程或者CME驱动的激波加速,并且在被扰动后的行星际太阳风中传输,这些过程都紧紧依赖于太阳风背景场.因此获取更加接近物理真实的太阳风背景场是模拟SEP事件的重要部分,也是提高SEP物理模式的关键因素之一.我们目前的工作基于张明等发展的SEP在行星际空间传播的模型,尝试将Parker太阳风速度解及WIND飞船观测的磁场实时数据融入模型中,研究不同的太阳风速度以及真实磁场分布对SEP在行星际空间中传播的影响.通过求解聚焦传输方程,我们的模拟结果表明:(1)快太阳风条件下,绝热冷却效应项发挥了更大的作用,使粒子能量衰减的更快,而慢太阳风对粒子的通量变化没有显著影响;(2)加入观测的磁场数据时,粒子的全向通量剖面发生了比较明显的变化,具体表现在:通量峰值推迟到达、出现多峰结构、各向异性也发生一些改变.分析表明真实磁场的极性对粒子在行星际空间中传播有着重要的影响.     

地球同步轨道高能电子变化

结合小波分析及交叉小波分析方法,研究了地球同步轨道高能电子动态变化的多时间尺度结构,分析了电子通量在不同周期随着太阳风速、地磁指数D_st变化的具体特点.结果发现：（1）电子通量的长期变化受控于太阳风速,在太阳活动低值年,电子通量值高,具有明显的13.4天,27.4天及187天周期;交叉小波分析表明,电子通量的13.4天及27.4天周期受太阳风速周期变化信号的影响,187天周期变化受D_st指数周期变化信号的影响.（2）电子通量半年变化主要归因于太阳风的驱动作用,在每年的第100天及270左右达到两次峰值,峰值大小不对称,与D_st指数的谷值大小呈反比.（3）由于冕洞形成过程中的太阳风高速流影响,电子通量具有13.4及27.4天的周期,峰值水平受控于太阳风速结构.     

1998年4-5月地球同步轨道MeV电子通量增强事件

采用GOES9卫星观测的能量大于2MeV和大于4MeV电子通量和行星际飞船ACE太阳风参数的高时间分辨率资料,以及磁暴指数Dst资料,分析了1998年4-5月期间地球同步轨道电子通量增强事件的时间和能量响应特征及其与行星际太阳风参数、磁暴和亚暴等扰动条件的对应关系.结果表明,地球同步轨道相对论性（MeV）电子通量增强事件有明显的周日变化,中午极大和午夜极小.4月22日和5月5日开始的两次大事件中,能量大于2MeV电子通量中午极大值上升到最大值的时间尺度分别约为4天和1天,中午极大值高于背景水平的持续时间分别为13天（4月22日-5月4日）和16天（5月4日-20日）以上.每次MeV电子通量增强事件的能量范围不完全相同.两次大事件的上升段都对应于磁暴的恢复相,与太阳风动压脉冲、高速流脉冲和负Bz分量关系密切.     

Ulysses的观测与太阳风加速机理初议

Ulysses 是迄今为止第一次沿独特的日球纬度方向考察日球高纬度空间区域的飞船。本文描述了 Ulysses 飞船的部分主要观测结果,并进行了分析,在 Ulysses 飞船穿越太阳南,北极之前,科学家们提出了各种不同的太阳风速度、磁场等参量的纬向变化模型。分析表明,这些模型都不能解释 Ulysses 飞船的观测结果。Ulysses 飞船的观测对经典的太阳风理论提出了挑战,太阳风的加热与加速是一个远没有被解决的问题。观测与分析表明,经典热传导不可能驱动高速流,太阳风的加速伴随着加热的发生,而加热率大小可能与离子的回旋频率有关;太阳风的热源可能不是单一的形式,而且不同形式的热源对太阳的加热贡献大小与日球径向距离有关。本文讨论并分析了几种可能的太阳风加热与加速机制。     

地球磁尾不同位置处高速流的统计特性研究

使用2007~2011年THEMIS卫星数据,对位于地球磁尾(|YGSM|13RE,|ZGSM|5RE,–30REXGSM–6RE)等离子体片内的高速流及背景的等离子体特性和它们与太阳风参数之间的联系进行了统计研究.我们发现,距离地球越近,高速流温度的增加相较于其背景要更强一些;高速流与背景的离子数密度比值和离子温度比值也都有所升高;而我们的统计进一步表明,高速流密度与其发生前2 h的太阳风密度相关性最高,背景密度与其观测时刻前3.5 h的太阳风密度相关性最高,且二者的归一化密度(密度与太阳风密度之比)均与其前3 h的行星际磁场θ角(θ=arctan(Bz/sqrt(Bx2+By2)))相关性程度最大.行星际磁场越倾向于北向,高速流归一化密度越大,与磁尾背景等离子体的性质相似.     

The effect of the high-speed stream following the corotating interaction region on the geomagnetic activities

The high-speed stream following the corotating interaction regions (CIRs) was analyzed. As a result of the analysis, it is found that the geomagnetic field is continuously disturbed in the high-speed stream in question. The geomagnetic disturbances with long duration recurred several rotations between December 1993 and June 1994. These disturbances were associated with a large recurrent coronal hole expanding from the south pole of the Sun. High-speed solar wind from this coronal hole was observed by the IMP-8 satellite during this period. However, the observed intensities of the geomagnetic disturbances were different for each recurrent period. This is explained by the seasonal effect. The disturbed geomagnetic condition continued in the highspeed stream after the passage of the CIRs. The long duration of these disturbances can be explained by the continuous energy input into the Earths magnetosphere from the high-speed regions following the CIRs. This kind of long-duration geomagnetic disturbance in association with coronal holes has been observed in the declining phase of other solar cycles. The relation between the coronal-hole area and the maximum solar-wind velocity is not good for the well-developed large coronal hole analyzed here.     

Solar activity and geomagnetic disturbances

An analysis of IZNIRAN magnetic observatory data indicated that geomagnetic storms with sudden and gradual commencements form two independent populations with respect to the disturbance occurrence time and character because the solar sources of these disturbances are different. Storms with sudden and gradual commencements are caused by coronal mass ejections and high-speed solar wind streams from coronal holes, respectively.     

High-speed streams from coronal holes and the accelerating mechanism of the solar wind

Abstract

In this paper, the general Mach number equation is derived, and the influence of typical energy forms in the solar wind is analysed in detail. It shows that the accelerating process of the solar wind is influenced critically by the form of heating in the corona, and that the transonic mechanism is mainly the result of the adjustment of the variation of the crosssection of flowing tubes and the heat source term.

The accelerating mechanism for both the high-speed stream from the coronal hole and the normal solar wind is similar. But, the temperature is low in the lower level of the coronal hole and more heat energy supply in the outside is required, hence the high speed of the solar wind; while the case with the ordinary coronal region is just the opposite, and the velocity of the solar wind is therefore lower. The accelerating process for various typical parameters is calculated, and it is found that the high-speed stream may reach 800 km/sec.     

Studying correlations between the coronal hole area,solar wind velocity,and local magnetic indices in the Canadian region during the decline phase of cycle 23

Geomagnetic disturbances in the Canadian region are compared with their solar and heliospheric sources during the decline phase of solar activity, when recurrent solar wind streams from low-latitude coronal holes were clearly defined. A linear correlation analysis has been performed using the following data: the daily and hourly indices of geomagnetic activity, solar wind velocity, and coronal hole area. The obtained correlation coefficients were rather low between the coronal hole areas and geomagnetic activity (0.17–0.48), intermediate between the coronal hole areas and the solar wind velocity (0.40–0.65), and rather high between the solar wind velocity and geomagnetic activity (0.50–0.70). It has been indicated that the correlation coefficient values can be considerably increased (by tens of percent in the first case and about twice in the second case) if variations in the studied parameters related to changes in the ionosphere (different illumination during a year) and variations in the heliolatitudinal shift of the coordinate system between the Earth, the Sun, and a spacecraft are more accurately taken into account.     

Forbush effects with a sudden and gradual onset

For a comprehensive study of the Forbush effects and their relation to solar and geomagnetic activity, a database of transient phenomena in cosmic rays and the interplanetary medium has been created, which is continuously updated with data on new events. Based on these data, we study the dependence of the Forbush effects on various internal and external parameters, as well as select different groups of events. In this paper, we consider recurrent (caused by high-speed solar wind streams from coronal holes) and sporadic (associated with coronal mass ejections) events. We investigate groups of events with a sudden and gradual onset. We show that the resulting dependencies of the Forbush effects (on the parameters of interplanetary disturbances, geomagnetic activity indices, etc.) are substantially different for the above-mentioned groups. Most likely, these differences are caused by different sources of solar wind disturbances.     

Main Properties of Forbush Effects Related to High-Speed Streams from Coronal Holes

The IZMIRAN database of Forbush effects and interplanetary disturbances was used to study features of the action of high-speed solar wind streams from coronal holes on cosmic rays. Three hundred and fifty Forbush effects created by coronal holes without other actions were distinguished. The mean values and distributions have been found for different characteristics of events from this group and compared with all Forbush effects and Forbush effects caused by coronal ejections. Despite the great differences in high-speed streams from coronal holes, this group turned out to be more compact and uniform as compared to events related to coronal ejections. Regression dependences and correlation relations between different parameters of events for the studied groups have been obtained. It has been shown that Forbush effects caused by coronal ejections depend considerably more strongly on the characteristics of interplanetary disturbances as compared to Forbush effects related to coronal holes. This suggests a significant difference between the modulation mechanisms of Forbush effects of different types and corroborates earlier conclusions based on indirect data.     

Solar connections of geoeffective magnetic structures

Coronal mass ejections (CMEs) and high-speed solar wind streams (HSS) are two solar phenomena that produce large-scale structures in the interplanetary (IP) medium. CMEs evolve into interplanetary CMEs (ICMEs) and the HSS result in corotating interaction regions (CIRs) when they interact with preceding slow solar wind. This paper summarizes the properties of these structures and describes their geoeffectiveness. The primary focus is on the intense storms of solar cycle 23 because this is the first solar cycle during which simultaneous, extensive, and uniform data on solar, IP, and geospace phenomena exist. After presenting illustrative examples of coronal holes and CMEs, I discuss the internal structure of ICMEs, in particular the magnetic clouds (MCs). I then discuss how the magnetic field and speed correlate in the sheath and cloud portions of ICMEs. CME speed measured near the Sun also has significant correlations with the speed and magnetic field strengths measured at 1 AU. The dependence of storm intensity on MC, sheath, and CME properties is discussed pointing to the close connection between solar and IP phenomena. I compare the delay time between MC arrival at 1 AU and the peak time of storms for the cloud and sheath portions and show that the internal structure of MCs leads to the variations in the observed delay times. Finally, we examine the variation of solar-source latitudes of IP structures as a function of the solar cycle and find that they have to be very close to the disk center.     

Variations in the cosmic source intensity during radio astronomical studies of the solar wind

Fluctuations in the intensity of cosmic radiosources, which are slower than interplanetary scintillations and are observed during radio astronomical studies of the solar wind, are discussed. It has been indicated that daytime variations (on average, from 8 to 16 h) are caused by large-scale disturbances in the solar wind rather than are of an ionospheric origin. A conclusion is made that such variations can be used to study the near-solar interplanetary space and predict space weather.     

Solar-wind–magnetosphere coupling,including relativistic electron energization,during high-speed streams

High geomagnetic activity occurs continuously during high-speed solar wind streams, and fluxes of relativistic electrons observed at geosynchronous orbit enhance significantly. High-speed streams are preceded by solar wind compression regions, during which time there are large losses of relativistic electrons from geosynchronous orbit. Weak to moderate geomagnetic storms often occur during the passage of these compression regions; however, we find that the phenomena that occur during the ensuing high-speed streams do not depend on whether or not a preceding storm develops. Large-amplitude Alfvén waves occur within the high-speed solar wind streams, which are expected to lead to intermittent intervals of significantly enhanced magnetospheric convection and to thus also lead to repetitive substorms due to repetitively occurring reductions in the strength of convection. We find that such repetitive substorms are clearly discernible in the LANL geosynchronous energetic particle data during high-speed stream intervals. Global auroral images are found to show unambiguously that these events are indeed classical substorms, leading us to conclude that substorms are an important contributor to the enhanced geomagnetic activity during high-speed streams. We used the onsets of these substorms as indicators of preceding periods of enhanced convection and of reductions in convection, and we have used ground-based chorus observations from the VELOX instrument at Halley station as an indicator of magnetospheric chorus intensities. These data show evidence that it is the periods of enhanced convection that precede substorm expansions, and not the expansions themselves, that lead to the enhanced dawn-side chorus wave intensity that has been postulated to cause the energization of relativistic electrons. If this inference is correct, and if it is chorus that energizes the relativistic electrons, then high-speed solar wind streams lead to relativistic electron flux enhancements because the embedded large-amplitude Alfvén waves give multi-day periods of intermittent significantly enhanced convection.     

Earth-Affecting Solar Causes Observatory (EASCO): A potential International Living with a Star Mission from Sun–Earth L5

This paper describes the scientific rationale for an L5 mission and a partial list of key scientific instruments the mission should carry. The L5 vantage point provides an unprecedented view of the solar disturbances and their solar sources that can greatly advance the science behind space weather. A coronagraph and a heliospheric imager at L5 will be able to view CMEs broadsided, so space speed of the Earth-directed CMEs can be measured accurately and their radial structure discerned. In addition, an inner coronal imager and a magnetograph from L5 can give advance information on active regions and coronal holes that will soon rotate on to the solar disk. Radio remote sensing at low frequencies can provide information on shock-driving CMEs, the most dangerous of all CMEs. Coordinated helioseismic measurements from the Sun–Earth line and L5 provide information on the physical conditions at the base of the convection zone, where solar magnetism originates. Finally, in situ measurements at L5 can provide information on the large-scale solar wind structures (corotating interaction regions (CIRs)) heading towards Earth that potentially result in adverse space weather.