磁层亚暴扩展相的数值模拟

本文用多步隐格式方法,求解包含电阻的磁流体力学方程组,对磁层亚暴扩展相作数值模拟.计算结果展现了亚暴扩展相期间磁尾变化的主要特征.它表明,球向和尾向等离子体流与准稳态重联有关.等离子体团的尾向喷发,致使中性线尾侧电流片内的密度降低,等离子体片变薄.中性线近地侧的等离子体团朝着地球运动,并合并于地球附近的重联区内.     

The effect of magnetic substorms on near-ground atmospheric current

Ionosphere-magnetosphere disturbances at high latitudes, e.g. magnetic substorms, are accompanied by energetic particle precipitation and strong variations of the ionospheric electric fields and currents. These might reasonably be expected to modify the local atmospheric electric circuit. We have analysed air-earth vertical currents (AECs) measured by a long wire antenna at Esrange, northern Sweden during 35 geomagnetic substorms. Using superposed epoch analysis we compare the air-earth current variations during the 3 h before and after the time of the magnetic X-component minimum with those for corresponding local times on 35 days without substorms. After elimination of the average daily variation we can conclude that the effect of substorms on AEC is small but distinguishable. It is speculated that the AEC increases observed during about 2 h prior to the geomagnetic X-component minimum, are due to enhancement of the ionospheric electric field. During the subsequent 2 h of the substorm recovery phase, the difference between substorm and quiet atmospheric currents decreases. The amplitude of this substorm variation of AEC is estimated to be less than 50% of the amplitude of the diurnal variation in AEC during the same time interval. The statistical significance of this result was confirmed using the Van der Waerden X-test. This method was further used to show that the average air-earth current and its fluctuations increase during late expansion and early recovery phases of substorms.     

Are our ideas about Dst correct?

The idea of two separate storm time ring currents, a symmetric and an asymmetric one has accepted since the 1960s. The existence of a symmetric equatorial ring current was concluded from Dst. However, the asymmetric development of the low-latitude geomagnetic disturbance field during storms lead to the assumption of the real existence of an asymmetric ring current. I think it is time to inquire whether this conception is correct. Thus, I have investigated the development of the low-latitude geomagnetic field during all the magnetic local times under disturbed and quiet conditions. The storm on February 6–9, 1986 and a statistical analysis of many storms has shown that the asymmetry does not vanish during the storm recovery phase. The ratio between the recovery phase asymmetry and the main phase asymmetry is low only for powerful storms. Storms of moderate intensity show the opposite. The global picture of the field evolution of the February storm shows clear differences at different local times. For instance the main phase and recovery phase start time does not coincide with Dst. Also the ring current decay is not the same at different local times. Therefore, Dst gives an incorrect picture of the field development. Moreover, asymmetry does not disappear during international quiet days as the investigation of the low-latitude geomagnetic field shows. Considering all these observations, I think we must revise our ideas about the ring current. In my opinion only one ring current exists and this is an asymmetric one. This asymmetry increases during storms and develops rather fast to more or less symmetric conditions. However, in no case is itjustified to conclude from Dst that a symmetric ring current exists.     

Ring current influence on auroral electrojet predictions

Geomagnetic storms and substorms develop under strong control of the solar wind. This is demonstrated by the fact that the geomagnetic activity indices Dst and AE can be predicted from the solar wind alone. A consequence of the strong control by a common source is that substorm and storm indices tend to be highly correlated. However, a part of this correlation is likely to be an effect of internal magnetospheric processes, such as a ring-current modulation of the solar wind-AE relation. The present work extends previous studies of nonlinear AE predictions from the solar wind. It is examined whether the AE predictions are modulated by the Dst index.This is accomplished by comparing neural network predictions from Dst and the solar wind, with predictions from the solar wind alone. Two conclusions are reached: (1) with an optimal set of solar-wind data available, the AE predictions are not markedly improved by the Dst input, but (2) the AE predictions are improved by Dst if less than, or other than, the optimum solar-wind data are available to the net. It appears that the solar wind-AE relation described by an optimized neural net is not significantly modified by the magnetosphere’s Dst state. When the solar wind alone is used to predict AE, the correlation between predicted and observed AE is 0.86, while the prediction residual is nearly uncorrelated to Dst. Further, the finding that Dst can partly compensate for missing information on the solar wind, is of potential importance in operational forecasting where gaps in the stream of real time solar-wind data are a common occurrence.     

Testing electric field models using ring current ion energy spectra from the Equator-S ion composition (ESIC) instrument

During the main and early recovery phase of a geomagnetic storm on February 18, 1998, the Equator-S ion composition instrument (ESIC) observed spectral features which typically represent the differences in loss along the drift path in the energy range (5–15 keV/e) where the drift changes from being E × B dominated to being gradient and curvature drift dominated. We compare the expected energy spectra modeled using a Volland-Stern electric field and a Weimer electric field, assuming charge exchange along the drift path, with the observed energy spectra for H⁺ and O⁺. We find that using the Weimer electric field gives much better agreement with the spectral features, and with the observed losses. Neither model, however, accurately predicts the energies of the observed minima.     

Geomagnetic storm effects at low latitudes

The geomagnetic horizontal (H) field from the chain of nine observatories in India are used to study the storm-time and disturbance daily variations. The peak decrease in storm-time variation in H showed significant enhancements at the equatorial electrojet stations over and above the normally expected decrease due to the ring current effects corrected for geomagnetic latitudes. The disturbance daily variation of H at equatorial stations showed a large decrease around midday hours over and above the usual dawn-maximum and dusk-minimum seen at any mid-latitude stations around the world. These slow and persistent additional decreases of H of disturbance daily variation at equatorial latitudes could be the effect of a westward electric field due to the Disturbance Ionospheric dynamo coupled with abnormally large electrical conductivities in the E region over the equator.     

Signatures of storm sudden commencements in geomagnetic H, Y and Z fields at Indian observatories during 1958–1992

The work describes an intensive study of storm sudden commencement (SSC) impulses in horizontal (H), eastward (Y) and vertical (Z) fields at four Indian geomagnetic observatories between 1958–1992. The midday maximum of δH has been shown to exist even at the low-latitude station Alibag which is outside the equatorial electrojet belt, suggesting that SSC is associated with an eastward electric field at equatorial and low latitudes. The impulses in Y field are shown to be linearly and inversely related to δH at Annamalainagar and Alibag. The average SC disturbance vector is shown to be about 10–20°W of the geomagnetic meridian. The local time variation of the angle is more westerly during dusk hours in summer and around dawn in the winter months. This clearly suggests an effect of the orientation of shock front plane of the solar plasma with respect to the geomagnetic meridian. The δZ at δC have a positive impulse as in δH. The ratio of δZ/δH are abnormally large exceeding 1.0 in most of the cases at Trivandrum. The latitudinal variation of δZ shows a tendency towards a minimum over the equator during the nighttime hours. These effects are explained as (1) resulting from the electromagnetic induction effects due to the equatorial electrojet current in the subsurface conducting layers between India and Sri Lanka, due to channelling of ocean currents through the Palk Strait and (2) due to the concentration of induced currents over extended latitude zones towards the conducting graben between India and Sri Lanka just south of Trivandrum.     

Substorm observations in the early morning sector with Equator-S and Geotail

Data from Equator-S and Geotail are used to study the dynamics of the plasma sheet observed during a substorm with multiple intensifications on 25 April 1998, when both spacecraft were located in the early morning sector (03–04 MLT) at a radial distance of 10–11 R_E. In association with the onset of a poleward expansion of the aurora and the westward electrojet in the premidnight and midnight sector, both satellites in the morning sector observed plasma sheet thinning and changes toward a more tail-like field configuration. During the subsequent poleward expansion in a wider local time sector (20−04 MLT), on the other hand, the magnetic field configuration at both satellites changed into a more dipolar configuration and both satellites encountered again the hot plasma sheet. High-speed plasma flows with velocities of up to 600 km/s and lasting 2–5 min were observed in the plasma sheet and near its boundary during this plasma sheet expansion. These high-speed flows included significant dawn-dusk flows and had a shear structure. They may have been produced by an induced electric field at the local dipolarization region and/or by an enhanced pressure gradient associated with the injection in the midnight plasma sheet.     

Effects of substorms on the stormtime ring current index Dst

There has been some discussion in recent times regarding whether or not substorm expansive phase activity plays any role of importance in the formation of the stormtime ring current. I explore this question using the K_p index as a proxy for substorm expansive phase activity and the D_st index as a proxy for symmetric ring current strength. I find that increases in D_st are mildly related to the strength of substorm expansive phase activity during the development of the storm main phase. More surprisingly, I find that the strength of D_st during the storm recovery phase is positively correlated with the strength of substorm expansive phase activity. This result has an important bearing on the question of how much the Dst index reflects activity other than that of the stormtime symmetric ring current strength for which it is supposed to be a proxy.