429 research outputs found

    Geomagnetic field fluctuations during the passage at the Earth's orbit of the tail of the 15?16 July 2000 ejecta

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    International audienceIn this work we present the analysis of the geomagnetic field fluctuations observed at different ground stations (approximately along two latitudinal arrays, separated by several hours in local time) during the passage at the Earth's orbit of the tail of the 15?16 July 2000 coronal ejecta. The time interval of interest is characterized by northward interplanetary magnetic field conditions and several changes in the solar wind dynamic pressure. We found at all stations, both in the local morning and in the local evening, simultaneous and highly coherent waves at the same discrete frequencies (~ 1.8 and ~ 3.6 mHz) and suggest a possible interpretation in terms of global compressional modes driven by an impulsive variation of the solar wind pressure. Along the array situated in the morning sector, at the highest latitudes, the higher frequency mode seems to couple with the local field line resonance; on the other hand, along the array situated in the evening sector, the characteristics of the observed fluctuations suggest that the highest latitude station could be located at the footprint of open field lines. Our results also show that solar wind pressure variations observed during the recovery phase of the storm do not find correspondence in the geomagnetic field variations, regardless of local time and latitude; conversely, some hours later continuous solar wind pressure variations find a close correspondence in the geomagnetic field variations at all stations

    Pc5 geomagnetic field fluctuations at discrete frequencies at a low latitude station

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    International audienceA statistical analysis of the geomagnetic field fluctuations in the Pc5 frequency range (1?5 mHz) at a low latitude station (L = 1.6) provides further evidence for daytime power peaks at discrete frequencies. The power enhancements, which become more pronounced during high solar wind pressure conditions, may be interpreted in terms of ground signatures of magnetospheric cavity/waveguide compressional modes driven by solar wind pressure pulses. In this sense, the much clearer statistical evidence for afternoon events can be related to corotating structures mainly impinging the postnoon magnetopause. A comparison with results obtained for the same time intervals from previous investigations at higher latitudes and in the Earth's magnetosphere confirms the global character of the observed modes

    Pc3 pulsations during variable IMF conditions

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    International audiencePc3 geomagnetic field fluctuations detected at low latitude (L'Aquila, Italy) during the passage of a high velocity solar wind stream, characterized by variable interplanetary magnetic field conditions, are analyzed. Higher frequency resonant fluctuations and lower frequency phenomena are simultaneously observed; the intermittent appearance and the variable frequency of the longer period modes can be well interpreted in terms of the variable IMF elements; moreover their polarization characteristics are consistent with an origin related to external waves propagating in antisunward direction. A comparison with simultaneous observations performed at Terra Nova Bay (Antarctica) provides additional evidence for a clear relationship between the IMF and Pc3 pulsations also at very high latitudes

    Single spacecraft identification of the bow shock orientation and speed: A comparison between different methods

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    We examine 33 bow shock crossings by IMP8 and compare different methods to calculate the bow shock normal direction and speed using single spacecraft measurements. We find that the mixed equation by Abraham-Shrauner combined with the mass flux conservation equation and the minimum-variance technique applied to a limited set of the Rankine-Hugoniot conservation equations give very similar results that are in good agreement with theoretical predictions. The solutions obtained by the velocity coplanarity theorem are reliable only for nearly perpendicular shocks, while poor results are obtained for such cases from the magnetic coplanarity theorem. We also suggest that in some cases the time resolution of plasma measurements (about 60 s) may be too low to resolve the density behaviour close to the bow shock and to allow definite evaluation of the shock parameters

    Low frequency geomagnetic field fluctuations at cap and low latitude during October 29-31, 2003

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    On October-November 2003 complex interplanetary structures, originated by a series of solar eruptions, hit the Earth, triggering violent Sun-Earth connection events. In this paper we analyze the low frequency geomagnetic field fluctuations detected on the ground during Oct. 29-31, 2003, a time period characterized by extremely high solar wind speed values and by out-of-ecliptic interplanetary magnetic field orientation for intervals of several hours. We analyze geomagnetic field measurements at four high latitude stations located in the polar cap, three in the southern and one in the northern hemisphere. From a comparison with simultaneous measurements at low latitude, we address the question of the global character of the observed phenomena. The results show, for selected time intervals, the occurrence of simultaneous fluctuations at all the stations, with high coherence even between high and low latitude; it is interesting that these fluctuations are detected during open magnetospheric conditions, when the high latitude stations are situated well within the polar cap, i.e. far from closed field lines

    Rethinking the Polar Cap: Eccentric Dipole Structuring of ULF Power at the Highest Corrected Geomagnetic Latitudes

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    The day-to-day evolution and statistical features of Pc3-Pc7 band ultralow frequency (ULF) power throughout the southern polar cap suggest that the corrected geomagnetic (CGM) coordinates do not adequately organize the observed hydromagnetic spatial structure. It is shown that that the local-time distribution of ULF power at sites along CGM latitudinal parallels exhibit fundamental differences and that the CGM latitude of a site in general is not indicative of the site\u27s projection into the magnetosphere. Thus, ULF characteristics observed at a single site in the polar cap cannot be freely generalized to other sites of similar CGM latitude but separated in magnetic local time, and the inadequacy of CGM coordinates in the polar cap has implications for conjugacy/mapping studies in general. In seeking alternative, observationally motivated systems of “polar cap latitudes,” it is found that eccentric dipole (ED) coordinates have several strengths in organizing the hydromagnetic spatial structure in the polar cap region. ED latitudes appear to better classify the local-time ULF power in both magnitude and morphology and better differentiate the “deep polar cap” (where the ULF power is largely UT dependent and nearly free of local-time structure) from the “peripheral polar cap” (where near-magnetic noon pulsations dominate at lower and lower frequencies as one increases in ED latitude). Eccentric local time is shown to better align the local-time profiles in the magnetic east component over several PcX bands but worsen in the magnetic north component. It is suggested that a hybrid ED-CGM coordinate system might capture the strengths of both CGM and ED coordinates. It is shown that the local-time morphology of median ULF power at high-latitude sites is dominantly driven by where they project into the magnetosphere, which is best quantified by their proximity to the low-altitude cusp on the dayside (which is not necessarily quantified by a site\u27s CGM latitude), and that variations in the local-time morphology at sites similar in ED latitude are due to both geographic local-time control (relative amplification or dampening by the diurnal variation in the local ionospheric conductivity) and geomagnetic coastal effects (enhanced power in a coastally mediated direction). Regardless of cause, it is emphasized that the application of CGM latitudes in the polar cap region is not entirely meaningful and likely should be dispensed with in favor of a scheme that is in better accord with the observed hydromagnetic spatial structure

    The Earth’s passage of coronal mass ejecta on October 29-31, 2003: ULF geomagnetic field fluttuations at very high latitude

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    We study ULF geomagnetic field fluctuations detected on October 29-31, 2003, when the Earth’s arrival of solar wind CMEs produced major geomagnetic storms; these solar wind structures are characterized by extremely high plasma speed and long-duration intervals with northward interplanetary magnetic field. The analyzed geomagnetic field data are from four high latitude stations (three in Antarctica), located deep in the polar cap. The analysis is extended also to low latitude European stations, in order to discriminate between local and global magnetospheric phenomena

    Twenty years of geomagnetic field observations at Mario Zucchelli Station (Antarctica)

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    During the 1986-87 austral summer a geomagnetic observatory was installed at Terra Nova Bay. During the first years both geomagnetic field time variation monitoring and absolute measurements were carried out only during summer. Since 1991 variometer measurements are automatically performed throughout the year, while absolute measurements are still performed only during summer. In spite of this, interesting observations were obtained during the life (quite long for Antarctica) of the geomagnetic observatory. In particular, this paper briefly presents some of the most important results: studies on secular variation, daily variation (and its dependence from solar cycle and seasons) and geomagnetic higher frequency variations, such as geomagnetic pulsations

    Low frequency geomagnetic field fluctuations in Antarctica: comparison between two polar cap stations

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    We present a statistical analysis of low frequency (~0.5-5 mHz, periods ~3-30 min) geomagnetic field fluctuations at the Antarctic stations Mario Zucchelli Station (TNB, formerly Terra Nova Bay) and Scott Base (SBA), which are located at the same geomagnetic latitude but with 1-hr difference in MLT (Table 1). The two stations are usually in the polar cap, at the footprint of open geomagnetic field lines, but around local geomagnetic noon they approach the polar cusp. This study focuses on the coherence and phase difference between the fluctuations at the two stations. The analysis is based on 1-min values of the horizontal H component measured during the entire years 2001-2002. The coherence and phase difference have been computed for each 2-hours interval with a step-size of 1 hour. Station TNB is run by INGV; data from SBA are provided by INTERMAGNET CD-ROMs. Interplanetary magnetic field (IMF) and solar wind (SW) data from ACE spacecraft have been downloaded from OMNI database. Interplanetary data have been delayed by 1 hour to take into account the average SW transit time from ACE to Earth
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