• Journal of Astronomy and Space Sciences
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• v.36 no.3
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• pp.133-147
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• 2019

Challenging Minisatellite Payload (CHAMP) satellite magnetic data are used to investigate the latitudinal variation of the storm-time meso-scale field-aligned currents by defining a new metric called the FAC range. Three major geomagnetic storm events are considered. Alongside SymH, the possible contributions from solar wind dynamic pressure and interplanetary magnetic field (IMF) $B_Z$ are also investigated. The results show that the new metric predicts the latitudinal variation of FACs better than previous studies. As expected, the equatorward expansion and poleward retreat are observed during the storm main phase and recovery phase respectively. The equatorward shift is prominent on the northern duskside, at ${\sim}58^{\circ}$ coinciding with the minimum SymH and dayside at ${\sim}59^{\circ}$ compared to dawnside and nightside respectively. The latitudinal shift of FAC range is better correlated to IMF $B_Z$ in northern hemisphere dusk-dawn magnetic local time (MLT) sectors than in southern hemisphere. The FAC range latitudinal shifts responds better to dynamic pressure in the duskside northern hemisphere and dawnside southern hemisphere than in southern hemisphere dusk sector and northern hemisphere dawn sector respectively. FAC range exhibits a good correlation with dynamic pressure in the dayside (nightside) southern (northern) hemispheres depicting possible electrodynamic similarity at day-night MLT sectors in the opposite hemispheres.

• Journal of Astronomy and Space Sciences
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• v.29 no.3
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• pp.259-267
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• 2012

Polar cap potential has long been considered as an indicator for the amount of energy flowing in the magnetosphere-ionosphere system. Thus, the estimation of polar cap potential is important to understand the physical process of the magnetosphere. To estimate the polar cap potential in the Northern Hemisphere, merging electric field by Kan & Lee (1979) is adopted. Relationships between the PC index and calculated merging electric field ($E^*$) are examined during full-time and storm-time periods separately. For this purpose Dst, AL, and PC indices and solar wind data are utilized during the period from 1996-2003. From this linear relationship, polar cap potential (${\Phi}^*$) is estimated using the formula by Doyle & Burke (1983). The values are represented as $58.1{\pm}26.9$ kV for the full-time period and $123.7{\pm}84.1$ kV for a storm-time period separately. Considering that the average value of polar cap potential of Doyle & Burke (1983) is about 47 kV during moderately quiet intervals with the S3-2 measurements, these results are similar to such. The monthly averaged variation of Dst, AL, and PC indices are then compared. The Dst and AL indices show distinct characteristics with peaks during equinoctial season whereas the average PC index according to the month shows higher values in autumn than in spring. The monthly variations of the linear correlation coefficients between solar wind parameters and geomagnetic indices are also examined. The PC-AL linear correlation coefficient is highest, being 0.82 with peaks during the equinoctial season. As with the AL index, the PC index may also prove useful for predicting the intensity of an auroral substorm. Generally, the linear correlation coefficients are shown low in summer due to conductance differences and other factors. To assess the role of the PC index during the recovery phase of a storm, the relation between the cumulative PC index and the duration is examined. Although the correlation coefficient lowers with the storm size, it is clear that the average correlation coefficient is high. There is a tendency that duration of the recovery phase is longer as the PC index increases.

• Journal of Astronomy and Space Sciences
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• v.32 no.3
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• pp.181-187
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• 2015

Storm sudden commencements (SSCs) occur due to a rapid compression of the Earth's magnetic field. This is generally believed to be caused by interplanetary (IP) shocks, but with exceptions. In this paper we explore possible causes of SSCs other than IP shocks through a statistical study of geomagnetic storms using SYM-H data provided by the World Data Center for Geomagnetism - Kyoto and by applying a superposed epoch analysis to simultaneous solar wind parameters obtained with the Advanced Composition Explorer (ACE) satellite. We select a total of 274 geomagnetic storms with minimum SYM-H of less than -30nT during 1998-2008 and regard them as SSCs if SYM-H increases by more than 10 nT over 10 minutes. Under this criterion, we found 103 geomagnetic storms with both SSC and IP shocks and 28 storms with SSC not associated with IP shocks. Storms in the former group share the property that the strength of the interplanetary magnetic field (IMF), proton density and proton velocity increase together with SYM-H, implying the action of IP shocks. During the storms in the latter group, only the proton density rises with SYM-H. We find that the density increase is associated with either high speed streams (HSSs) or interplanetary coronal mass ejections (ICMEs), and suggest that HSSs and ICMEs may be alternative contributors to SSCs.

• Bulletin of the Korean Space Science Society
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• 2004.04a
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• pp.39-39
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• 2004

It has been known that ring current particles can be lost through dayside MP(magnetopause). However, details of the loss mechanism of this process has not received much attention. In this study, we show that the solar wind dynamic pressure P$\sub$D/ can play a significant role in the dayside loss. In order to show that, we have first conducted superposed epoch analysis using 95 geomagnetic storm events selected from the period 1997 to 2002. (omitted)

• Journal of Astronomy and Space Sciences
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• v.30 no.1
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• pp.43-48
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• 2013

The geomagnetic activity shows the semiannual variation stronger in vernal and autumnal equinoxes than in summer and winter solstices. The semiannual variation has been explained by three main hypotheses such as Axial hypothesis, Equinoctial hypothesis, and Russell-McPherron Effect. Many studies using the various geomagnetic indices have done to support three main hypotheses. In recent, Oh & Yi (2011) examined the solar magnetic polarity dependency of the geomagnetic storm occurrence defined by Dst index. They reported that there is no dependency of the semiannual variation on the sign of the solar polar fields. This study examines the solar magnetic polarity dependency of quiet time geomagnetic activity. Using Dxt index (Karinen & Mursula 2005) and Dcx index (Mursula & Karinen 2005) which are recently suggested, in addition to Dst index, we analyze the data of three-year at each solar minimum for eight solar cycles since 1932. As a result, the geomagnetic activity is stronger in the period that the solar magnetic polarity is anti-parallel with the Earth's magnetic polarity. There exists the difference between vernal and autumnal equinoxes regarding the solar magnetic polarity dependency. However, the difference is not statistically significant. Thus, we conclude that there is no solar magnetic polarity dependency of the semiannual variation for quiet time geomagnetic activity.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.42 no.1
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• pp.41.1-41.1
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• 2017

It is well known that there are good relations of coronal hole (CH) parameters such as the size, location, and magnetic field strength to the solar wind conditions and the geomagnetic storms. Especially in the minimum phase of solar cycle, CHs in mid- or low-latitude are one of major drivers for geomagnetic storms, since they form corotating interaction regions (CIRs). By adopting the method of Vrsnak et al. (2007), the Space Weather Research Center (SWRC) in Korea Astronomy and Space Science Institute (KASI) has done daily forecast of solar wind speed and Dst index from 2010. Through years of experience, we realize that the geomagnetic storms caused by CHs have different characteristics from those by CMEs. Thus, we statistically analyze the characteristics and causality of the geomagnetic storms by the CHs rather than the CMEs with dataset obtained during the solar activity was very low. For this, we examine the CH properties, solar wind parameters as well as geomagnetic storm indices. As the first result, we show the different trends of the solar wind parameters and geomagnetic indices depending on the degree of solar activity represented by CH (quiet) or sunspot number (SSN) in the active region (active) and then we evaluate our forecasts using CH information and suggest several ideas to improve forecasting capability.

• Journal of Satellite, Information and Communications
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• v.7 no.3
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• pp.78-85
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• 2012

This paper takes precautions proposals against prospective disasters from the space weather maximum in 2013. The space weather maximum could wreak havoc in this world. A geomagnetic space storm sparked by a solar eruption like the one that flared toward earth is bound to strike again and could wreak havoc across the modern world. Despite of the fact that not only researches by colleges and institutions current researches have been focusing on warning systems of space communication and the earth network systems, but also management and control systems are not situated for the space weather blasters. The purpose of the study is that the damage reduces methods implementation on the ultimate space weather communication systems by above lists proposed type analysis. In result, the implementation of the communication disaster management systems deals with the smart IT converged GIS analysis on the flare, solar proton event, geomagnetic storm to the effects of the geomagneticsphere, ionosphere and troposphere from solar maximum. This research can provide affective methods for the saving lives and property protections that implementation of the disaster prediction and disaster prevention systems adapts smart IT systems and converged high tech information systems using decision making support systems of the GIS methodology.

• Journal of Astronomy and Space Sciences
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• v.25 no.2
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• pp.129-138
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• 2008

This study attempts to show how the geomagnetic indices, AU, AL and Dst, respond to the interplanetary parameters, more specifically, the solar wind electric field VBz during southward interplanetary magnetic field (IMF) period. The AU index does not seem to respond linearly to the variation of southward IMF. Only a noticeable correlation between the AU and VBz is shown during summer, when the ionospheric conductivity associated with the solar EUV radiation is high. It is highly likely that the effect of electric field on the eastward electrojet intensification is only noticeable whenever the ionospheric conductivity is significantly enhanced during summer. Thus, one should be very cautious in employing the AU as a convection index during other seasons. The AL index shows a significantly high correlation with VBz regardless of season. Considering that the auroral electrojet is the combined result of electric field and ionospheric conductivity, the intensification of these two quantities seems to occur concurrently during southward IMF period. This suggests that the AL index behaves more like a convection index rather than a substorm index as far as hourly mean AL index is concerned. Contrary to the AU index, the AL index does not register the maximum value during summer for a given level of VBz. It has something to do with the findings that discrete auroras are suppressed in sunlight hemisphere (Newell et al. 1996), thus reducing the ionospheric conductivity during summer. As expected, the Dst index tends to become more negative as VBz gets intensified. However, the Dst index (nT) is less than or equal to 15VBz(mV/m) + 50(Bz < 0). It indicates that VBz determines the lower limit of the storm size, while another factor(s), possibly substorm, seems to get further involved in intensifying storms. Although it has not been examined in this study, the duration of southward IMF would also be a factor to be considered in determining the size of a storm.

• Journal of Astronomy and Space Sciences
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• v.30 no.4
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• pp.231-239
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• 2013

To identify seasonal and latitudinal variations of F2 layer during magnetic storm, we examine the change of daily averages of foF2 observed at Kokubunji and Hobart during high (2000~2002) and low (2006~2008) solar activity intervals. It is found that geomagnetic activity has a different effect on the ionospheric F2-layer electron density variation for different seasons and different latitudes. We, thus, investigate how the change of geomagnetic activity affects the ionospheric F2-layer electron density with season and latitude. For this purpose, two magnetic storms occurred in equinox (31 March 2001) and solstice (20 November 2003) seasons are selected. Then we investigate foF2, which are observed at Kokubunji, Townsville, Brisbane, Canberra and Hobart, Dst index, Ap index, and AE index for the two magnetic storm periods. These observatories have similar geomagnetic longitude, but have different latitude. Furthermore, we investigate the relation between the foF2 and the [O]/[$N_2$] ratio and TEC variations during 19-22 November 2003 magnetic storm period. As a result, we find that the latitudinal variations of [O]/[$N_2$] ratio and TEC are closely related with the latitudinal variation of foF2. Therefore, we conclude that the seasonal and latitudinal variations of foF2 during magnetic storm are caused by the seasonal and latitudinal variations of mean meridional circulation of the thermosphere, particularly upwelling and downwelling of neutral atmosphere during magnetic storm.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.39 no.1
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• pp.74.2-74.2
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• 2014

We have presented a classic two-ribbon filament eruption occurred in the east side of NOAA active region 11850 at 21:00 UT on 29 September 2013. Interestingly, this filament eruption was not accompanied by any flares and just there was a slight brightening in X-rays, C1.2, associated with the eruption. An accompanying huge CME was appeared at 22:12 UT in the LASCO C2 field of view and it propagates into the interplanetary space with a speed of about 440 km/s. And the related solar proton event (S2) started at 05:05 UT and peaked at 20:05 UT on 30 September 2013. The CME arrival was recorded by the ACE spacecraft around 01:30 UT on 2 October 2013. Around the CME arrival time, the solar-wind speed reached at about 640 km/s and IMF Bz showed southward component (-27 nT). Finally, the filament eruption and the CME cause geomagnetic storm (G2) at 03:00 UT on 2 October 2013. We described the detailed evolution of the filament eruption and its related phenomena such as CME, proton event, geomegnetic storm and so on. In addition, we will discuss about the activation mechanism of the filament eruption without flares.