Open AccessQuantitative evaluation of solar wind time‐shifting methods
Author(s) -
Cameron Taylor,
Jackel Brian
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
space weather
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.254
H-Index - 56
ISSN - 1542-7390
DOI - 10.1002/2016sw001451
Subject(s) - solar wind , magnetopause , meteorology , magnetic field , geosynchronous orbit , dipole model of the earth's magnetic field , computer science , environmental science , physics , computational physics , remote sensing , interplanetary magnetic field , geology , astronomy , satellite , quantum mechanics
Nine years of solar wind dynamic pressure and geosynchronous magnetic field data are used for a large‐scale statistical comparison of uncertainties associated with several different algorithms for propagating solar wind measurements. The MVAB‐0 scheme is best overall, performing on average a minute more accurately than a flat time‐shift. We also evaluate the accuracy of these time‐shifting methods as a function of solar wind magnetic field orientation. We find that all time‐shifting algorithms perform significantly worse (>5 min) due to geometric effects when the solar wind magnetic field is radial (parallel or antiparallel to the Earth‐Sun line). Finally, we present an empirical scheme that performs almost as well as MVAB‐0 on average and as well as MVAB‐0 for intervals with nonradial B .