Thermospheric heating by high-speed streams in the solar wind

Details Thermospheric heating by high-speed streams in the solar wind Thermospheric heating by high-speed streams in the solar wind

Jun 2010

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2010jgra..11506318b&link_type=abstract

Journal of Geophysical Research, Volume 115, Issue A6, CiteID A06318

Physics

2

Ionosphere: Electric Fields (2712), Space Weather: Satellite Drag (1241), Ionosphere: Ionospheric Disturbances, Interplanetary Physics: Solar Wind Plasma, Interplanetary Physics: Corotating Streams

Scientific paper

We compare thermospheric density (ρ) and exospheric temperature (T∞) responses measured by the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) satellites with systematic characteristics of recurring high-speed streams (HSSs) in the solar wind observed by the Advanced Composition Explorer (ACE) at L1 during the last four solar rotations of 2005. HSSs show remarkably similar features from one solar rotation to the next. Within corotating interaction regions (CIRs) at the leading edges of the HSSs plasma densities and magnetic fields steepen to excite low levels of geomagnetic and thermospheric activity. Consistent with origins in northern hemispheric coronal holes containing open, monopolar flux, interplanetary magnetic fields observed near L1 had average BX and BZ with the same polarities and opposite to that of BY. We show that a model used to estimate T∞ changes during large magnetic storms overpredicts CIR-driven thermospheric heating. However, large-amplitude Alfvén waves in the interiors of HSSs generate regularly observed increases in T∞ as well as the auroral electrojet index. The regularity of interplanetary driving and thermospheric responses suggests the possibility of developing reliable 27-day alerts about impending increases in thermospheric drag exerted on objects in low Earth orbits during solar minimum.

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