Solar wind energy input during prolonged, intense northward interplanetary magnetic fields: A new coupling function

Physics

Scientific paper

Rate now

  [ 0.00 ] – not rated yet Voters 0   Comments 0

Details

Magnetospheric Physics: Magnetic Storms And Substorms (4305, 7954)

Scientific paper

Sudden energy release (ER) events in the midnight sector auroral zone during intense (B > 10 nT), long-duration (T > 3 h), northward (N = Bz > 0 nT) IMF magnetic clouds (MCs) during solar cycle 23 (SC23) have been examined in detail. The MCs with northward-then-southward (NS) IMFs were analyzed separately from MCs with southward-then-northward (SN) configurations. It is found that there is a lack of ER/substorms during the N field intervals of NS clouds. In sharp contrast, ER events do occur during the N field portions of SN MCs. From the above two results it is reasonable to conclude that the latter ER events represent residual energy remaining from the preceding S portions of the SN MCs. We derive a new solar wind-magnetosphere coupling function during northward IMFs: ENIMF = α N-1/12 V7/3 B1/2 + β V |Dstmin|. The first term on the right-hand side of the equation represents the energy input via “viscous interaction,” and the second term indicates the residual energy stored in the magnetotail. It is empirically found that the magnetotail/magnetosphere/ionosphere can store energy for a maximum of ˜4 h before it has dissipated away. This concept is defining one for ER/substorm energy storage. Our scenario indicates that the rate of solar wind energy injection into the magnetotail/magnetosphere/ionosphere for storage determines the potential form of energy release into the magnetosphere/ionosphere. This may be more important to understand solar wind-magnetosphere coupling than the dissipation mechanism itself (in understanding the form of the release). The concept of short-term energy storage is also applied for the solar case. It is argued that it may be necessary to identify the rate of energy input into solar magnetic loop systems to be able to predict the occurrence of solar flares.

No associations

LandOfFree

Say what you really think

Search LandOfFree.com for scientists and scientific papers. Rate them and share your experience with other people.

Rating

Solar wind energy input during prolonged, intense northward interplanetary magnetic fields: A new coupling function does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this scientific paper.

If you have personal experience with Solar wind energy input during prolonged, intense northward interplanetary magnetic fields: A new coupling function, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Solar wind energy input during prolonged, intense northward interplanetary magnetic fields: A new coupling function will most certainly appreciate the feedback.

Rate now

     

Profile ID: LFWR-SCP-O-1427047

  Search
All data on this website is collected from public sources. Our data reflects the most accurate information available at the time of publication.