[1] High-resolution and precise vector magnetic field measurements of the CHAMP satellite are used to investigate the field-aligned currents (FACs) in the southern polar ionosphere. The period considered comprises 2 years, providing a double coverage of the seasons and about a six-fold coverage of all local times. From more than 11,000 polar passes the average spatial pattern of FACs in the polar ionosphere is derived. The response of features like intensity and positions of large-scale field-aligned currents to normal (when merging electric field is less than 2 mV/m) and disturbed (when merging electric field is greater than 2 mV/m) conditions in the Southern Hemisphere are investigated. The influence of the solar illumination-induced conductivity on the morphology features of field-aligned currents during normal conditions are also studied. It follows from this analysis that the intensity of field-aligned currents changes with the merging electric field at all MLT sectors but with the solar radiation-induced conductivity only at the dayside. Furthermore, a linear relation between the conductivity and the peak FAC density exists, which implies that the dayside FAC densities are directly controlled by the amount of solar radiation. Solar elevation does not affect the nightside FAC density. On the dayside a systematic difference of the footprint latitude between sunlit and dark conditions emerges. Under dark conditions the auroral region retreats about 2°equatorward. On the basis of the above results, we may suggest that the sources of Birkeland currents on the zdayside behave like a voltage source, while on the nightside the response is possibly like a current source.Citation: Wang, H., H. Lühr, and S. Y. Ma (2005), Solar zenith angle and merging electric field control of field-aligned currents: A statistical study of the Southern Hemisphere,
Abstract. Based on the multi-year data base (2001)(2002)(2003)(2004)(2005)(2006)(2007)(2008)(2009) of CHAMP Planar Langmuir Probe (PLP) data and GRACE K-Band Ranging (KBR1B) data, typical features of ionospheric plasma irregularities are studied at the altitudes of CHAMP (300-400 km) and GRACE (∼500 km). The phenomena we are focusing on are the equatorial plasma bubbles (EPBs). Similar seasonal/longitudinal (S/L) distributions of EPB have been found at both CHAMP and GRACE altitudes during solar active and quiet years. Peak EPB occurrence rates, defined as number of events within an S/L bin divided by the number of passes over that bin, decrease from the high and moderate solar flux period (2001)(2002)(2003)(2004)(2005) to the low solar flux period (2005)(2006)(2007)(2008)(2009)) from 80% to 60% and 60% to 40% at CHAMP and GRACE altitudes, respectively. On average the occurrence rate increases linearly with solar flux at about the same rate at CHAMP and GRACE. For high flux levels (P10.7>200) non-linear increases are observed at GRACE. The occurrence rate increases rapidly after 19:00 local time (LT) during high solar flux periods. Around solar minimum rates increase more gently and peak around 22:00 LT. The highest occurrence rates are encountered at latitudes around 10 • north and south of the dip equator. Results from the two altitudes support the notion that EPBs form regions of depleted plasma along geomagnetic fluxtubes. It is shown for the first time that in regions of high occurrence rates EPBs are associated with fluxtubes reaching greater apex heights than those in regions of low rates.
Abstract. Based on 1829 well-defined substorm onsets in the Northern Hemisphere, observed during a 2-year period by the FUV Imager on board the IMAGE spacecraft, a statistical study is performed. From the combination of solar wind parameter observations by ACE and magnetic field observations by the low altitude satellite CHAMP, the location of auroral breakups in response to solar illumination and solar coupling parameters are studied. Furthermore, the correspondence of the onset location with prominent large-scale field-aligned currents and electrojets are investigated. Solar illumination and the related ionospheric conductivity have significant effects on the most probable substorm onset latitude and local time. In sunlight, substorm onsets tend to occur 1 h earlier in local time and 1.5 • more poleward than in darkness. The solar wind input, represented by the merging electric field, integrated over 1 h prior to the substorm, correlates well with the latitude of the breakup. Most poleward latitudes of the onsets are found to range around 73 • magnetic latitude during very quiet times. Field-aligned and Hall currents observed concurrently with the onset are consistent with the signature of a westward travelling surge evolving out of the Harang discontinuity. The observations suggest that the ionospheric conductivity has an influence on the location of the precipitating energetic electron which causes the auroral break-up signature.
Abstract. In this study five years of CHAMP (Challenging Mini-satellite Payload) fluxgate magnetometer (FGM) data is used to investigate the characteristics of Equatorial Plasma Bubbles (EPBs). We filtered the FGM data by using bandpasses with four different cut-off periods to get the EPBs with different maximum spatial scale sizes in the meridional plane ranging from 76-608 km. Associated with the EPB observations at about 400 km, the typical altitude of CHAMP during the year 2000-2005, we also investigate the postsunset equatorial vertical plasma drift data from ROCSAT-1 (Republic of China Satellite 1). Since the height of the F-layer is highly correlated with the vertical plasma drift and solar flux, we sorted the ROCSAT-1 data into different groups by F10.7. From the integrated vertical drift we have estimated the post-sunset uplift of the ionosphere. By comparing the properties of EPB occurrence for different scale sizes with the global distribution of plasma vertical uplift, we have found that EPBs reaching higher altitudes are more structured than those which are sampled by CHAMP near the top side of the depleted fluxtube. Such a result is in accord with 3-D model simulations (Aveiro and Hysell, 2010). Small-scale EPB structures are observed by CHAMP when the irregularities reach apex heights of 800 km and more. Such events are encountered primarily in the Brazilian sector during the months around November, when the post-sunset vertical plasma drift is high.
Abstract. Similar to the Dst index, the SYM-H index may also serve as an indicator of magnetic storm intensity, but having distinct advantage of higher time-resolution. In this study the NARX neural network has been used for the first time to predict SYM-H index from solar wind (SW) and IMF parameters. In total 73 time intervals of great storm events with IMF/SW data available from ACE satellite during 1998 to 2006 are used to establish the ANN model. Out of them, 67 are used to train the network and the other 6 samples for test. Additionally, the NARX prediction model is also validated using IMF/SW data from WIND satellite for 7 great storms during 1995-1997 and 2005, as well as for the July 2000 Bastille day storm and November 2001 superstorm using Geotail and OMNI data at 1 AU, respectively. Five interplanetary parameters of IMF B z , B y and total B components along with proton density and velocity of solar wind are used as the original external inputs of the neural network to predict the SYM-H index about one hour ahead. For the 6 test storms registered by ACE including two super-storms of min. SYM-H< −200 nT, the correlation coefficient between observed and NARX network predicted SYM-H is 0.95 as a whole, even as high as 0.95 and 0.98 with average relative variance of 13.2% and 7.4%, respectively, for the two super-storms. The prediction for the 7 storms with WIND data is also satisfactory, showing averaged correlation coefficient about 0.91 and RMSE of 14.2 nT. The newly developed NARX model shows much better capability than Elman network for SYM-H prediction, which can partly be attributed to a key feedback to the input layer from the output neuron with a suitable length (about 120 min). This feedback means that nearly real information of the ring current status is effectively directed to take part in the prediction of SYM-H index by ANN. The proper history length of the output-feedback may Correspondence to: S. Y. Ma (syma@whu.edu.cn) mainly reflect on average the characteristic time of ring current decay which involves various decay mechanisms with ion lifetimes from tens of minutes to tens of hours. The Elman network makes feedback from hidden layer to input only one step, which is of 5 min for SYM-H index in this work and thus insufficient to catch the characteristic time length.
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