Observations of discrete, global magnetospheric oscillations directly driven by solar wind density variations

Details Observations of discrete, global magnetospheric oscillations directly driven by solar wind density variations Observations of discrete, global magnetospheric oscillations directly driven by solar wind density variations

Jun 2003

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2003jgra..108.1257k&link_type=abstract

Journal of Geophysical Research Space Physics, Volume 108, Issue A6, pp. SMP 21-1, CiteID 1257, DOI 10.1029/2002JA009676

Physics

42

Magnetospheric Physics: Solar Wind/Magnetosphere Interactions, Magnetospheric Physics: Mhd Waves And Instabilities, Magnetospheric Physics: Magnetospheric Configuration And Dynamics, Magnetospheric Physics: Plasma Waves And Instabilities

Scientific paper

In this paper we present six events in which both the time series and the spectral content of solar wind number density fluctuations and magnetospheric magnetic field observations were highly correlated for intervals ranging from a few to twelve hours. The fluctuations were periodic and occurred at discrete frequencies which often matched the f = 1.3, 1.9, 2.6, and 3.4 mHz oscillations that have been attributed to global magnetospheric MHD cavity and/or waveguide modes. We also observed significant power in the sub-mHz region, with frequencies as low as f = 0.1 mHz. We show that these fluctuations were first observed in the solar wind, far upstream from the Earth, and argue that the convected density perturbations slowly alter the size of the magnetospheric cavity leading to the appearance of multiple, discrete magnetospheric oscillations. We argue that for these events the discrete frequencies were an inherent property of the solar wind and were not related to a possible cavity or waveguide mode of the magnetosphere. We then show that the density fluctuations, when converted into length scales, organize into scale sizes of L = 23, 30, 45, and 80-100 R E . Finally, we speculate on a possible solar source for the periodic solar wind structures.

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