Physics
Scientific paper
Dec 2006
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2006agufmsa41b1418k&link_type=abstract
American Geophysical Union, Fall Meeting 2006, abstract #SA41B-1418
Physics
0310 Airglow And Aurora, 2431 Ionosphere/Magnetosphere Interactions (2736), 2778 Ring Current, 2788 Magnetic Storms And Substorms (7954), 7999 General Or Miscellaneous
Scientific paper
Important advances have been made in recent years in understanding the physics of geomagnetic storms. Numerous modeling and observational studies have been aimed at explaining the storm-time changes in mass and energy of the near-Earth region of the magnetosphere known as the ring current. While the advent of satellites such as TIMED and IMAGE have provided an excellent database for global measurements of the ring current, satellites in general are costly, are able to make measurements of only a particular region once per pass, and have a limited lifetime. Ground-based optical instruments pose an attractive and complementary alternative to satellite-based monitoring of space weather. In this paper we describe a proof-of-concept exploratory study of an optical technique for ground-based monitoring of ring current precipitation. This study focuses on the feasibility of using ground-based optical observations to determine ring current composition, morphology, and evolution. Although ground-based ring- current-related optical emissions have been observed in the past, we use a similar optical technique to verify for the first time the feasibility of continuously monitoring the ring current from the ground and test the relationship between emissions observed at various wavelengths and in situ measurements of O+ and H+ number and energy density. SRI International (SRI) has designed an autonomous photometer and camera system and deployed it at the Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory near La Serena Chile. The photometer is equipped with narrowband filters at 630 nm (O1D), 557.7 nm (O1S), 656.3 nm (H alpha), 427.8 nm (N2+ 1NG), 486.1 nm (H beta), and a neutral density filter. The final goal of this project is to determine whether ground-based optical measurements can be used to systematically detect ring current precipitation and to use these measurements to track ring current composition, morphology, and evolution during strong magnetic storms. We present data collected since August 2006 and discuss initial results of enhanced optical emissions during periods of increased solar activity.
der Laan van J.
Doe Richard
Kendall E. G.
Valentic T.
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