Solar Cycle Variation of the Plasma Mass Density at Geosynchronous Orbit

Details Solar Cycle Variation of the Plasma Mass Density at Geosynchronous Orbit Solar Cycle Variation of the Plasma Mass Density at Geosynchronous Orbit

Dec 2009

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2009agufmsm11a1563t&link_type=abstract

American Geophysical Union, Fall Meeting 2009, abstract #SM11A-1563

Physics

[2730] Magnetospheric Physics / Magnetosphere: Inner, [2736] Magnetospheric Physics / Magnetosphere/Ionosphere Interactions, [2752] Magnetospheric Physics / Mhd Waves And Instabilities, [2778] Magnetospheric Physics / Ring Current

Scientific paper

Standing Alfven waves are routinely detected by the magnetometers onboard the GOES geostationary satellites, and the frequency of the waves can be used to evaluate the plasma mass density. We have statistically analyzed 12 years (1980-1991) of the GOES data to determine the range and the controlling factors of the mass density. The parameter chosen for the analysis is the frequency of the third harmonic of the toroidal standing Alfven waves, denoted fT3, which is evaluated in a 30-min time window that is stepped forward by 10-min. A semi-automated procedure resulted in 228382 fT3 samples from all available GEOS magnetometer data. We obtained the equatorial mass density for each fT3 sample by numerically solving the Alfven wave equation for a realistic model magnetic field and using a realistic field line mass distribution function. The daily median density in the 06-12 MLT sector was used for correlation with Kp, Dst, and F10.7 (solar flux index). We find that F10.7 is the most dominant controlling factor of the density. As F10.7 changes from ~70 in the solar minimum to ~310 in the solar maximum, the density changes by a factor of 6 from 4.9 amu/cc to 29 amu/cc. In addition, the density is enhanced by a factor of ~2 during the main phase of geomagnetic storms. Similar analyses have been done on field line resonance frequencies detected on the ground at plasmaspheric latitudes. Our results are significant in that the GOES satellites are outside the plasmasphere most of the time.

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