The solar wind-magnetosphere dynamo and the magnetospheric substorm

In a quiet condition, the solar wind kinetic energy is converted into electrical energy. A small part of this energy is dissipated as heat energy in the polar ionosphere. We identify at least three types of magnetospheric disturbances which are not associated with an increase of the heat production and call them reversible disturbances, while the magnetospheric substorm is an irreversible disturbance which is associated with a large increase of the heat production.The magnetosphere appears to have an inherent internal instability by which a large amount of heat energy is sporadically produced in the polar upper atmosphere at the expense of the magnetic energy in the magnetotail. A positive feed-back process may be responsible for the growth of the instability and for the expansive phase, while the recovery phase sets in when some process begins to suppress the positive feed-back process.     

Total current of the auroral electrojet estimated from the IMS Alaska meridian chain of magnetic observatories

Based on magnetic data from the IMS Alaska meridian chain of observatories, the total current of the westward auroral electrojet flowing across the meridian is estimated by using two independent methods. The first one is a simple integration of the north-south component of magnetic perturbations along the meridian, providing the quantity F in units of nT·km. The other is to use the forward method, providing the total current I in units of A. It is shown that F and I have nearly identical time variations. Thus, by normalizing the two quantities and taking the numerical value of F in units of nT·km, it is possible to estimate the total electrojet current flowing across a magnetic meridian, with an accuracy of 90%, by using the latitudinal profile of the H component, namely I (A) = 2.0 F (nT·km).     

The energy coupling function and the power generated by the solar wind-magnetosphere dynamo

A solar wind parameter ε, known as the energy coupling function, has been shown to correlate with the power consumption in the magnetosphere. It is shown in the present paper that the parameter ε can be identified semi-quantitatively as the dynamo power delivered from the solar wind to an open magnetosphere. This identification not only provides a theoretical basis for the energy coupling function, but also constitutes an observational verification of the solar wind-magnetosphere dynamo along the magnetotail. Moreover, one can now conclude that a substorm results when the dynamo power exceeds 10₁₈ ergs ^?1.     

Mapping electrostatic potentials from the ionosphere to the magnetosphere

With the advent of long duration incoherent scatter radar experiments measuring ionospheric plasma convection over a wide range of latitudes and at all local times, the mapping and study of the spatial and temporal distribution of electric fields within the magnetosphere becomes possible. We consider the problems of mapping the ionospheric electrostatic potential distribution into the magnetosphere under the assumption that magnetic field lines are electrostatic equipotentials. We address the practical problem of developing a mapping technique which can adequately project ionospheric observations, acquired at different geographic longitudes, into the magnetosphere. The mapping must include the effects of a magnetotail when considering auroral latitudes and is a function of diurnal and seasonal effects and is ionospheric longitude dependent. Mapping observed ionospheric potential distributions into the magnetosphere yields parameters such as: the distribution of electric fields in the magnetosphere, the cross tail potential, the location of plasmapause, the local time of the ‘stagnation’ bulge region and the gradients of the electric field in the vicinity of the plasmapause.     

Propagation of VLF emissions in the magnetosphere and the ionosphere

Comparison of the low altitude polar orbiting Injun 5 Satellite data with the ground VLF data has revealed that there is a definite scarcity of VLF/ELF emissions at the ground level compared with the extent to which they are present at or above the auroral altitudes. Reasons for this have been investigated by performing ray path computations for whistler mode VLF propagation in an inhomogeneous and anisotropic medium, such as the magnetosphere and the ionosphere. Based on wave normal computations in the lower ionosphere, it has been found that many of the near-auroral zone VLF/ELF events are frequently either reflected from, or heavily attenuated in, the lower ionosphere. Besides collisional loss, severe attenuation of VLF signals in the lower ionosphere is also caused by the divergence of ray paths from the vertical (spatial attenuation). Cone of wave normal angles for the wave, within which VLF/ ELF signals are permitted to reach the ground, has been established. Wave normals lying outside this transmission cone are reflected from the lower ionosphere and do not find exit to the Earth-ionosphere cavity. Computations for VLF signals produced at auroral zone distances in the equatorial plane of the magnetosphere indicates that these signals are more or less trapped in the magnetosphere at altitudes > 1R_E.     

Global MHD modeling of Mercury's magnetosphere with applications to the MESSENGER mission and dynamo theory

We use a global magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) model to simulate Mercury's space environment for several solar wind and interplanetary magnetic field (IMF) conditions in anticipation of the magnetic field measurements by the MESSENGER spacecraft. The main goal of our study is to assess what characteristics of the internally generated field of Mercury can be inferred from the MESSENGER observations, and to what extent they will be able to constrain various models of Mercury's magnetic field generation. Based on the results of our simulations, we argue that it should be possible to infer not only the dipole component, but also the quadrupole and possibly even higher harmonics of the Mercury's planetary magnetic field. We furthermore expect that some of the crucial measurements for specifying the Hermean internal field will be acquired during the initial fly-bys of the planet, before MESSENGER goes into orbit around Mercury.     

A note on the energy transfer from the solar wind to the magnetosphere

The dimensional analysis of the energy transfer from the solar wind to the magnetosphere is formulated to include the effect of finite lifetime of the ring current particles. It is found that the solar wind energy input rate should be re-evaluated by considering the lifetime of the ring current particles.     

Dynamical behavior of thermal protons in the mid-latitude ionosphere and magnetosphere

Satellite and other observations have shown that H⁺ densities in the mid-latitude topside ionosphere are greatly reduced during magnetic storms when the plasmapause and magnetic field convection move to relatively low L-values. In the recovery phase of the magnetic storm the convection region moves to higher L-values and replenishment of H⁺ in the empty magnetospheric field tubes begins. The upwards flow of H⁺, which arises from O⁺—H charge exchange, is initially supersonic. However, as the field tubes fill with plasma, a shock front moves downwards towards the ionosphere, eventually converting the upwards flow to subsonic speeds. The duration of this supersonic recovery depends strongly on the volume of the field tube; for example calculations indicate that for L = 5 the time is approximately 22 hours. The subsonic flow continues until diffusive equilibrium is reached or a new magnetic storm begins. Calculations of the density and flux profiles expected during the subsonic phase of the recovery show that diffusive equilibrium is still not reached after an elapsed time of 10 days and correspondingly there is still a net loss of plasma from the ionosphere to the magnetosphere at that time. This slow recovery of the H⁺ density and flux patterns, following magnetic storms, indicates that the mid-latitude topside ionosphere may be in a continual dynamic state if the storms occur sufficiently often.     

Properties of adiabatic potential transitions in the polar ionosphere and magnetosphere

The properties of adiabatic potential transitions in a current carrying plasma are investigated and classified. It is shown that it is important to include pressure effects since the character of the transition (e.g. whether or not it behaves as a particle accelerator) is determined by whether the speed of a streaming species on entering the transition is less or greater than the “sound speed” of that species. If electrons are the main current carriers in the field aligned current systems associated with the polar ionosphere and magnetosphere we find that, under typical conditions, their drift speed is less than their thermal speed with the implication that if they enter a potential transition their pressure gradient will overcome the electrostatic field so that they are decelerated and heated by the transition. Under disturbed conditions when the field aligned current densities are exceptionally high, potential transitions act as particle accelerators.     

The Venus ionosphere at grazing incidence of solar radiation: Transport of plasma to the night ionosphere

Using a quasi-two-dimensional model of the Venus ionosphere, we calculated the ion number densities and horizontal ion bulk velocities expected for a range of solar zenith angles near the terminator (80 to 100°), and compared them with data obtained from the Pioneer Venus Orbiter retarding potential analyzer. The calculated ion bulk velocity arises entirely from the solar EUV-induced plasma pressure gradient and has a magnitude consistent with observations; ionization by suprathermal electrons is neglected in those computations. We find that while photoionization is the dominant source of ionospheric plasma for solar zenith angles less than 92°, plasma transport from the dayside is the dominant plasma source for solar zenith angles greater than 95°. We also show that the main nightside plasma peak at approximately 140 km altitude is of the F₂ type (i.e., is diffusion controlled). Its altitude and shape are thus quite insensitive to the altitude of the ion source.     

New characteristics of the solar cycle and dynamo theory

Based on an analysis of the observational data for solar cycles 12–23 (Royal Greenwich Observatory-USAF/NOAA Sunspot Data), we have studied various parameters of the “Maunder butterflies.” Based on the observational data for cycles 16–23, we have found that BT/Land S depend linearly on each other, where B is the mean magnetic field of the cycle, T is the cycle duration, S is the cycle strength, and L is the mean sunspot latitude in the cycle (the arithmetic mean of the absolute values of the mean latitudes in the north and south). The connection of the observed quantities with the α-ω-dynamo theory is discussed.     

Meridional circulation and the period of the solar dynamo cycle

We consider the conditions in the transition from the tachocline to the solar convective zone with changing diffusion coefficient. The topology of the magnetic fields involved in the solar dynamo is revised under the assumption that intermediate fields (of the order of 10 mT) have a dominant role in generating the fields in new cycle. The inclusion of meridional circulation is found to increase the dynamo wave period in comparison to the observed period. This suggests that the αΩ-effects are unimportant in calculating the solar cycle period but hold significance in determining the cycle amplitude.     

The hemispheric asymmetry of solar activity during the last century and the solar dynamo

We believe the Babcock-Leighton process of poloidal field generation to be the main source of irregularity in the solar cycle. The random nature of this process may make the poloidal field in one hemisphere stronger than that in the other hemisphere at the end of a cycle. We expect this to induce an asymmetry in the next sunspot cycle. We look for evidence of this in the observational data and then model it theoretically with our dynamo code. Since actual polar field measurements exist only from the 1970s, we use the polar faculae number data recorded by Sheeley (1991, 2008) as a proxy of the polar field and estimate the hemispheric asymmetry of the polar field in different solar minima during the major part of the twentieth century. This asymmetry is found to have a reasonable correlation with the asymmetry of the next cycle. We then run our dynamo code by feeding information about this asymmetry at the successive minima and compare the results with observational data. We find that the theoretically computed asymmetries of different cycles compare favorably with the observational data, with the correlation co-efficient being 0.73. Due to the coupling between the two hemispheres, any hemispheric asymmetry tends to get attenuated with time. The hemispheric asymmetry of a cycle ei-ther from observational data or from theoretical calculations statistically tends to be less than the asymmetry in the polar field (as inferred from the faculae data) in the preceding minimum. This reduction factor turns out to be 0.43 and 0.51 respectively in observational data and theoretical simulations.     

Responses of the polar ionosphere to the Bastille Day solar event

Simultaneous observations at Zhongshan Station, Antarctica, are presented for the interval of 13–17 July 2000 to show responses of the polar ionosphere to the Bastille Day (14 July 2000) solar event. The polar ionosphere was highly disturbed, as shown by frequently large deviations of the geomagnetic H-component, large riometer absorption events and strong ULF waves. Associated with the huge solar proton event produced by the X5/3B flare, a polar cap absorption (PCA) was observed. It began at ∼ 10:40 UT on 14 July and ended at ∼ 19:40 UT on 17 July. Superposed on it, there was a large absorption event with a peak of 26 dB, starting at ∼ 03:00 UT and ending at ∼ 11:10 UT on 15 July. This kind of absorption was probably produced by an intense `cloud of energetic electrons' during an auroral substorm. The ULF waves were very intense during the main phase and the recovery phase of the severe magnetic storm on 15 and 16 July. The ionospheric absorption was so strong that the digisonde signal was blacked out most of the time. The ionosphere returned to normal in the afternoon on 17 July.     

Solar activity in the past and the problem of solar dynamo

We study a new indirect index, or proxy data, of the solar activity - the intensity of luminescence of the microzones of cave flowstones. This index is in anticorrelation with the index deposition rate of ¹⁴C and in direct correlation with the solar activity as in thermoluminescent time series of sediment cores. Luminescence time series was obtained for long time intervals with different time resolution (from 5 years per pixel to 5 pixels per year). In such time series the long minima of Maunder and Spoerer, the Medieval maximum and other well known long lasting minima and maxima as well as some new ones can be seen. The very good resolution permits to study the general statistical properties of past solar activity. Some of the results obtained refer to the problem of the mechanism of solar magnetic field generation.     

Dynamo action in the ionosphere and motions of the magnetospheric plasma I. Symmetric dynamo action

In order to envisage the circulation pattern of the magnetospheric plasma produced by the dynamo action in the ionosphere, the distribution of the dynamo-induced electrostatic field resulting from basic ionospheric wind systems is studied. It is then shown by use of Maeda's field distribution that there exists a remarkable large-scale circulation of the magnetospheric plasma, inward (earthward) on the evening side of the magnetosphere and outward on the morning side. This motion is comparable to the motion produced by the Earth's rotation and by zonal winds in the ionosphere. It is shown also that the electrostatic field can cause a considerable radial motion of some of the energetic particles in the radiation belt.     

Amplitude and period of the dynamo wave and prediction of the solar cycle

The relation of the solar cycle period and its amplitude is a complex problem as there is no direct correlation between these two quantities. Nevertheless, the period of the cycle is of important influence to the Earth's climate, which has been noted by many authors. The present authors make an attempt to analyse the solar indices data taking into account recent developments of the asymptotic theory of the solar dynamo. The use of the WKB method enables us to estimate the amplitude and the period of the cycle versus dynamo wave parameters in the framework of the nonlinear development of the one-dimensional Parker migratory dynamo. These estimates link the period T and the amplitude a with dynamo number D and thickness of the generation layer of the solar convective zone h. As previous authors, we have not revealed any considerable correlation between the above quantities calculated in the usual way. However, we have found some similar dependences with good confidence using running cycle periods. We have noticed statistically significant dependences between the Wolf numbers and the running period of the magnetic cycle, as well as between maximum sunspot number and duration of the phase of growth of each sunspot cycle. The latter one supports asymptotic estimates of the nonlinear dynamo wave suggested earlier. These dependences may be useful for understanding the mechanism of the solar dynamo wave and prediction of the average maximum amplitude of solar cycles. Besides that, we have noted that the maximum amplitude of the cycle and the temporal derivative of the monthly Wolf numbers at the very beginning of the phase of growth of the cycle have high correlation coefficient of order 0.95. The link between Wolf number data and their derivative taken with a time shift enabled us to predict the dynamics of the sunspot activity. For the current cycle 23 this yields Wolf numbers of order 107±7.     

Response of peak electron densities in the martian ionosphere to day-to-day changes in solar flux due to solar rotation

Photochemical Chapman theory predicts that the square of peak electron density, N_m, in the dayside ionosphere of Mars is proportional to the cosine of solar zenith angle. We use Mars Global Surveyor Radio Science profiles of electron density to demonstrate that this relationship is generally satisfied and that positive or negative residuals between observed and predicted values of are caused by periods of relatively high or low solar flux, respectively.Understanding the response of the martian ionosphere to changes in solar flux requires simultaneous observations of the martian ionosphere and of solar flux at Mars, but solar flux measurements are only available at Earth. Since the Sun's output varies both in time and with solar latitude and longitude, solar flux at Mars is not simply related to solar flux at Earth by an inverse-square law. We hypothesize that, when corrected for differing distances from the Sun, solar fluxes at Mars and Earth are identical when shifted in time by the interval necessary for the Sun to rotate through the Earth–Sun–Mars angle.We perform four case studies that quantitatively compare time series of N_m at Mars to time series of solar flux at Earth and find that our hypothesis is satisfied in the three of them that used ionospheric data from the northern hemisphere. We define a solar flux proxy at Mars based upon the E_10.7 proxy for solar flux at Earth and use our best case study to derive an equation that relates N_m to this proxy. We discuss how the ionosphere of Mars can be used to infer the presence of solar active regions not facing the Earth.Our fourth case study uses ionospheric observations from the southern hemisphere at latitudes where there are strong crustal magnetic anomalies. These profiles do not have Chapman-like shapes, unlike those of the other three case studies. We split this set of measurements into two subsets, corresponding to whether or not they were made at longitudes with strong crustal magnetic anomalies. Neither subset shows N_m responding to changes in solar flux in the manner that we observe in the three other case studies.We find many similarities in ionospheric responses to short-term and long-term changes in solar flux for Venus, Earth, and Mars. We consider the implications of our results for different parametric equations that have been published describing this response.     

Some controversial issues in theories of the solar differential rotation and dynamo

The following points are discussed:

Modulation of Jovian middle magnetosphere currents and auroral precipitation by solar wind-induced compressions and expansions of the magnetosphere: initial response and steady state

We present results from a theoretical model which has been used to investigate the modulation of the magnetosphere-ionosphere coupling currents in the Jovian middle magnetosphere by solar wind-induced compressions and expansions of the magnetosphere. We consider an initial system in which the current sheet field lines extend to 50R_J in the equatorial plane, and where the iogenic plasma in the current sheet undergoes steady outward radial diffusion under the influence of the ionospheric torque which tends to maintain corotation with the planet. We show using typical Jovian parameters that the upward-directed field-aligned currents flowing throughout the middle magnetosphere region in this system peak at values requiring the existence of significant field-aligned voltages to drive them, resulting in large precipitating energy fluxes of accelerated electrons and bright ‘main oval’ UV auroras. We then consider the changes in these parameters which take place due to sudden expansions or compressions of the magnetosphere, resulting from changes in the solar wind dynamic pressure. Two cases are considered and compared, these being first the initial response of the system to the change, determined approximately from conservation of angular momentum of the radially displaced plasma and frozen-in field lines, and second the subsequent steady state of steady outward radial diffusion applied to the compressed or expanded system. We show that moderate inward compressions of the outer boundary of the current sheet field lines, e.g. from 50 to 40R_J, are effective in significantly reducing the coupling currents and precipitation in the initial state, the latter then recovering, but only partly so, during the evolution to the steady state. Strong inward compressions, e.g. to 30R_J cause significant super-corotation of the plasma and a reversal in sense of the current system in the initial state, such that bright auroras may then be formed poleward of the usual ‘main auroral oval’ due to the ‘return’ currents. The sense of the currents subsequently reverts back to the usual direction as steady-state conditions are restored, but they are weak, and so is the consequent electron precipitation. For outward expansions of the current sheet, however, the field-aligned currents and electron precipitation are strongly enhanced, particularly at the poleward border mapping to the outer weak field region of the current sheet. In this case there is little evolution of the parameters between the initial expansion and the subsequent steady state. Overall, the results suggest that the Jovian middle magnetosphere coupling currents and resulting ‘main oval’ auroral acceleration and precipitation will be strongly modulated by the solar wind dynamic pressure in the sense of anti-correlation, through the resulting compressions and expansions in the size of the magnetosphere.