The response of ionospheric convection to solar wind pressure fronts under different IMF orientations

Details The response of ionospheric convection to solar wind pressure fronts under different IMF orientations The response of ionospheric convection to solar wind pressure fronts under different IMF orientations

Dec 2002

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2002agufmsm11c0444b&link_type=abstract

American Geophysical Union, Fall Meeting 2002, abstract #SM11C-0444

Physics

2704 Auroral Phenomena (2407), 2712 Electric Fields (2411), 2716 Energetic Particles, Precipitating, 2776 Polar Cap Phenomena, 2784 Solar Wind/Magnetosphere Interactions

Scientific paper

It has recently been found that solar wind dynamic pressure changes dramatically affect the precipitation of magnetospheric particles into the high-latitude ionosphere. It has also been noted that the preexisting interplanetary magnetic field (IMF) orientation significantly affects the resulting changes in the size, location, and intensity of the auroral oval. The question then arises of how ionospheric convection is affected by solar wind pressure changes. We examine a number of solar wind pressure fronts impacting the magnetosphere under various IMF orientations and their effects on ionospheric convection as measured by up to four DMSP spacecraft. We show that for all studied IMF orientations the arrival of the pressure front causes an increase in ionospheric velocities within the polar-cap and auroral ionosphere, and consequently a rise in the cross-polar-cap potential drop. Our results indicate that the most dramatic enhancement of ionospheric convection occurs under steady southward IMF. The convection speeds in one example jumped by a factor of three, both in the polar cap and in the auroral oval. When the IMF is nearly zero before the pressure pulse we observe an increase of ionospheric convection by up to a factor of two. These results provide information on the processes involved in the closing of the polar cap that has been observed to occur under the above IMF conditions, following enhancements of solar wind pressure.

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