Open AccessVariation of Solar Wind Parameters Along With the Understanding of Energy Dynamics Within the Magnetospheric System During Geomagnetic Disturbances
Author(s) -
Poudel Prashant,
Simkhada Sunil,
Adhikari Binod,
Sharma Deepak,
Nakarmi Jeevan Jyoti
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
earth and space science
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.843
H-Index - 23
ISSN - 2333-5084
DOI - 10.1029/2018ea000495
Subject(s) - earth's magnetic field , solar wind , electrojet , substorm , geomagnetic storm , physics , ring current , geophysics , interplanetary magnetic field , magnetosphere , space weather , atmospheric sciences , magnetic field , quantum mechanics
Interplanetary solar wind parameters (velocity of solar wind particle [Vp], proton density [Nsw], and component of solar magnetic field [IMF‐Bz]) and geomagnetic indices (symmetric horizontal component of geomagnetic field [SYM‐H], auroral electrojet [AE]) divulge great deal of information about geomagnetic disturbances. To better understand the influence of solar wind invasion into the energy dynamics of magnetosphere system, we have chosen five geomagnetic disturbance events of completely different nature as the quietest days, intense storm, High Intensity Long Duration Continuous Auroral Activity, Substorm, and Supersubstorm. The statistical analysis of these five events clearly supports the case that most of the time IMF‐Bz plays major role to create magnetic reconnection leading to the geomagnetic disturbances. Our study shows that Joule heating covers the largest fraction of energy dissipation, averaging 53.6% of total deposited energy for all events. Even though, in case of Supersubstorm, the major contribution due to the ring current (47%) surpasses Joule heating (43%). The cross‐correlation analysis applied for the IMF‐Bz with SYM‐H, solar wind energy and magnetospheric sinks explain and quantify the relation between them. The positive correlation of IMF‐Bz with SYM‐H value in each event delineates that southward orientation of IMF‐Bz is responsible for the depression of SYM‐H. However, an interesting result that IMF‐Bz correlated negatively with SYM‐H value for the quiet event suggests the southward orientation of IMF‐Bz does not necessarily have to be the cause of disturbance always. In few occasion, Solar Quiet (Sq) and Lunar (L) current is found to be taking over the role of IMF‐Bz to create disturbance.