ALBERT

Description: The passage of an interplanetary (IP) shock was detected by Wind, ACE, Geotail, and THEMIS-B in the solar wind on 24 November 2008. From the propagation time of the IP shock at the spacecraft, it is expected that the IP shock front is aligned with the Parker spiral and strikes the postnoon dayside magnetopause first. Using multipoint observations of the sudden commencement (SC) at THEMIS probes, GOES 11, and ETS in the dayside magnetosphere, we confirmed that the magnetospheric response to the IP shock starts earlier in the postnoon sector than in the prenoon sector. We found that the estimated normal direction of the SC front is nearly aligned with the estimated IP shock normal. We also found that the SC front normal speed is much slower than the fast mode speed and is about 22–56% of the IP shock speed traveling in the solar wind. Thus, we suggest that the major field changes of the SC in the dayside magnetosphere are not due to the magnetic flux carried by hydromagnetic waves but to the increased solar wind dynamic pressure behind the shock front sweeping the magnetopause. The SC event appears as a step-like increase in the H component at the low-latitude Bohyun station and a negative-then-positive variation in the H component at the high-latitude Chokurdakh (CHD) station in the morning sector. During the negative perturbation at CHD, the SuperDARN Hokkaido radar detected a downward motion in the ionosphere, implying westward electric field enhancement. Using the THEMIS electric field data, it is confirmed that the westward electric field corresponds to the inward plasma motion in the dayside magnetosphere due to the magnetospheric compression.

Description: We examine magnetic and electric field perturbations associated with a sudden commencement (SC), caused by an interplanetary (IP) shock passing over the Earth's magnetosphere on 16 February 2013. The SC was identified in the magnetic and electric field data measured at THEMIS-E (THE-E: MLT = 12.4, L = 6.3), Van Allen Probe-A (VAP-A: MLT = 3.2, L = 5.1), and Van Allen Probe-B (VAP-B: MLT = 0.2. L = 4.9) in the magnetosphere. During the SC interval, THE-E observed a dawnward-then-duskward electric (E) field perturbation around noon, while VAP-B observed a duskward E-field perturbation around midnight. VAP-A observed a dawnward-then-duskward E-field perturbation in the postmidnight sector, but the duration and magnitude of the dawnward E-perturbation are much shorter and weaker than that at THE-E. That is, the E-field signature changes with local time during the SC interval. The SuperDARN radar data indicate that the ionospheric plasma motions during the SC are mainly due to the E-field variations observed in space. This indicates that the SC-associated E-field in space plays a significant role in determining the dynamic variations of the ionospheric convection flow. By comparing previous SC MHD simulations and our observations, we suggest that the E-field variations observed at the spacecraft are produced by magnetospheric convection flows due to deformation of the magnetosphere as the IP shock sweeps the magnetopause.

Description: The spatial evolution of vortex-like flow structures induced by a negative sudden impulse (SI−) is studied on the basis of SuperDARN King Salmon HF radar (KSR) with other ground and satellite data. A large dip in the solar wind density induced a fairly large SI− with a SYM-H amplitude of ∼40 nT. The SI-induced ionospheric flow signatures in the evening sector (MLT ∼ 19 h) were observed by KSR as a westward flow associated with the preliminary impulse (PI) followed by a more intense eastward flow with the main impulse (MI) in the sub-auroral region of the magnetic latitude ∼60–70 deg, consistent with the local ground magnetic field observations. Following the first PI-MI flow sequence, KSR saw a second and possibly third sequence of flow variation which were much smaller in flow amplitude than the first pair but showed qualitatively very similar flow variations and latitudinal/longitudinal propagation characteristics. These observations can be interpreted as aftershocks of the first PI-MI; the same sequence of vortices and field-aligned currents were generated and then drifted anti-sunward with the same mechanism, namely the pumping motion of the dayside magnetosphere. These results are qualitatively consistent with predictions suggested by recent numerical simulations.

Description: [1]  The spatial evolution of vortex-like flow structures induced by a negative sudden impulse (SI−) is studied on the basis of SuperDARN King Salmon HF radar (KSR) with other ground and satellite data. A large dip in the solar wind density induced a fairly large SI− with a SYM-H amplitude of ∼40 nT. The SI-induced ionospheric flow signatures in the evening sector (MLT ∼ 19 h) were observed by KSR as a westward flow associated with the preliminary impulse (PI) followed by a more intense eastward flow with the main impulse (MI) in the sub-auroral region of the magnetic latitude ∼60–70 deg, consistent with the local ground magnetic field observations. Following the first PI-MI flow sequence, KSR saw a second and possibly third sequence of flow variation which were much smaller in flow amplitude than the first pair but showed qualitatively very similar flow variations and latitudinal/longitudinal propagation characteristics. These observations can be interpreted as aftershocks of the first PI-MI; the same sequence of vortices and field-aligned currents were generated and then drifted anti-sunward with the same mechanism, namely the pumping motion of the dayside magnetosphere. These results are qualitatively consistent with predictions suggested by recent numerical simulations.