Research on a complex CME event including Hα, LASCO, radio and MDI observations

We present our research on a fast and decelerating partial halo coronal mass ejection (CME) event detected in multi-wavelengths in the chromosphere and the corona on 14 October, 1999. The event involved a whole complex active area which spanned more than 40° of heliolongitude. It included a strong solar flare (XI/1N) and a complex eruptive filament within an active region of the entire complex. Especially, several radio sources were detected in the decimetric range prior to the CME by the Nançay Radioheliograph (NRH). A linear force-free field extrapolation of the Michelson Doppler Imager (MDI) magnetogram was performed to calculate the magnetic topology of the complex prior to the triggering of the event. The presence of a coronal null point combined with the occurrence of two distant and nearly simultaneous radio sources put strong arguments in favor of the generalized breakout model for the triggering of the eruption. The analysis of the subsequent development of the event suggests that large interconnecting loops were ejected together with the CME.     

Sharp boundaries of solar wind plasma structures and their relationship to solar wind turbulence

Sharp (<10 min) and large (>20%) solar wind ion flux changes are common phenomena in turbulent solar wind plasma. These changes are the boundaries of small- and middle-scale solar wind plasma structures which can have a significant influence on Earth’s magnetosphere. These solar wind ion flux changes are typically accompanied by only a small change in the bulk solar wind velocity, hence, the flux changes are driven mainly by plasma density variations. We show that these events occur more frequently in high-density solar wind. A characteristic of solar wind turbulence, intermittency, is determined for time periods with and without these flux changes. The probability distribution functions (PDF) of solar wind ion flux variations for different time scales are calculated for each of these periods and compared. For large time scales, the PDFs are Gaussian for both data sets. For small time scales, the PDFs from both data set are more flat than Gaussian, but the degree of flatness is much larger for the data near the sharp flux change boundaries.     

Great solar bursts of October 19, 22 and 23, 1989

Itapetinga measurements at 48 GHz with the multibeam technique are used to determine the relative position of solar burst centroid of emission with high spatial accuracy and time resolution. For the Great Bursts of October 19,22, 1989, with a large production of relativistic particles, and October 23, it is suggested that, at 48 GHz, the bursts might have originated in more then one source in space and time. Additionally the October 19 and 22 Ground Level Events exhibited very unusual intensity-time profiles including double component structures for the onset phase. The Bern observatory spectral radio emission data show a strong spectral flattening typical for large source inhomogeneties. The interpretation for this is that large solar flares are a superposition of a few strong bursts (separated both in space and time) in the same flaring region.     

WIND/3DP and Nancay radioheliographobservations of solar energetic electron events

Initial results of a combined study of electron events using the 3DP experiment on the WIND spacecraftand the Nançay Radioheliograph (NRH) are presented. A total of 57 electron events whose solar release time could be inferred from WIND/3DP observations occurred during NRH observing times. In 40 of them a distinct signature was detected in maps at decimetric and metric wavelengths (dm-m-λ) taken by the NRH. These events are equally distributed among two categories: (1) Electron release together with dm-m-λ bursts of a few minutes duration: these events are also accompanied by decametric-hectometric type III bursts seen by WAVES/WIND. They correspond to the well-known impulsive electron events. (2) Electron release during long duration (several tens of minutes) dm-m-λ emission: the electrons are most often released more than ten minutes after the start of the radio event. In the majority of cases the dm-m-λ radio source changes position, size, and/or intensity near the time of electron release.     

The acceleration of Anomalous Cosmic Rays by stochastic acceleration in the heliosheath

Stochastic acceleration in the heliosheath appears to be a likely mechanism by which Anomalous Cosmic Rays (ACRs) are accelerated. However, most stochastic acceleration mechanisms are not appropriate. The energy density in the ACRs and in the interstellar pickup ions out of which the ACRs are accelerated greatly exceeds the energy density in the turbulence in the heliosheath. Thus, a traditional stochastic acceleration mechanism in which particles are accelerated by damping the turbulence will not work. A stochastic acceleration mechanism has been developed in which the total energy of the pickup ions and the ACRs is conserved. Energy is redistributed from the core pickup ions into a suprathermal tail to create the ACRs. A model for the acceleration of the ACRs in the heliosheath, based on this stochastic acceleration mechanism, is presented. The model provides reasonable fits to the spectra of suprathermal particles and ACRs observed by Voyager.     

磁暴对海南地区电离层扩展F的影响

利用2002年2月至2007年12月海南地区DPS-4测高仪观测数据, 用统计分析方法研究了磁暴对电离层扩展F的影响. 结果认为磁暴从整体上抑制了扩展F现象的发生. 但若把扩展F分为不同类型, 则结果却有所不同. 对于频率型(FSF), 在2002年和2003年磁暴对其有促发作用, 在2004---2007年有抑制作用; 对于区域型(RSF), 在2002---2005年磁暴对其有抑制作用, 在2006年和2007年, 对其有弱促发作用; 对于混合型(MSF), 在2002年磁暴对其有抑制作用, 在2003年和2004年有促发作用, 从2005年开始, 磁暴对其有抑制作用; 对于强区域型 (SSF), 在2002---2004年磁暴对其有抑制作用, 在2005年和2006年有促发作用, 2007年有弱抑制作用.      

Ionospheric response of equatorial and low latitude F-region during the intense geomagnetic storm on 24–25 August 2005

In this investigation, we present and discuss the response of the ionospheric F-region in the South American and East Asian sectors during an intense geomagnetic storm in August 2005. The geomagnetic storm studied reached a minimum Dst of −216 nT at 12:00 UT on 24 August. In this work ionospheric sounding data obtained of 24, 25, and 26 August 2005 at Palmas (PAL; 10.2° S, 48.2° W; dip latitude 6.6° S), São José dos Campos (SJC, 23.2° S, 45.9° W; dip latitude 17.6° S), Brazil, Ho Chi Minh City, (HCM; 10.5° N, 106.3° E; dip latitude 2.9° N), Vietnam, Okinawa (OKI; 26.3° N, 127.8° E; dip latitude 21.2° N), Japan, are presented. Also, the GPS observations obtained at different stations in the equatorial and low-latitude regions in the Brazilian sector are presented. On the night of 24–25 August 2005, the h′F variations show traveling ionospheric disturbances associated with Joule heating in the auroral zone from SJC to PAL. The foF2 variations show a positive storm phase on the night of 24–25 August at PAL and SJC during the recovery phase. Also, the GPS-VTEC observations at several stations in the Brazilian sector show a fairly similar positive storm phase on 24 August. During the fast decrease of Dst (between 10:00 and 11:00 UT) on 24 August, there is a prompt penetration of electric field of magnetospheric origin that result in abrupt increase (∼12:00 UT) in foF2 at PAL, SJC (Brazil) and OKI (Japan) and in VTEC at IMPZ, BOMJ, PARA and SMAR (Brazil). OKI showed strong oscillations of the F-region on the night 24 August resulted to the propagation of traveling atmospheric disturbances (TADs) by Joule heating in the auroral region. These effects result a strong positive observed at OKI station. During the daytime on 25 August, in the recovery phase, the foF2 observations showed positive ionospheric storm at HCM station. Some differences in the latitudinal response of the F-region is also observed in the South American and East Asian sectors.     

Relativistic electron fluxes and dose rate variations during April–May 2010 geomagnetic disturbances in the R3DR data on ISS

Space radiation has been monitored successfully using the Radiation Risks Radiometer-Dosimeter (R3D) installed at the ESA EXPOSE-R (R3DR) facility outside of the Russian Zvezda module of the International Space Station (ISS) between March 2009 and January 2011. R3DR is a Liulin type spectrometer–dosimeter with a single Si PIN detector 2 cm² of area and 0.3 mm thick. The R3DR instrument accumulated about 2 million measurements of the absorbed dose rate and flux of 10 s resolution. The total external and internal shielding before the detector of R3DR device is 0.41 g cm⁻². The calculated stopping energy of normally incident particles to the detector is 0.78 MeV for electrons and 15.8 MeV for protons. After the Coronal Mass Ejection (CME) at 09:54 UTC on 3 April 2010, a shock was observed at the ACE spacecraft at 0756 UTC on 5 April, which led to a sudden impulse on Earth at 08:26 UTC. Nevertheless, while the magnetic substorms on 5 and 6 of April were moderate; the second largest in history of GOES fluence of electrons with energy >2 MeV was measured. The R3DR data show a relatively small amount of relativistic electrons on 5 April. The maximum dose rate of 2323 μGy day⁻¹ was reached on 7 April; by 9 April, a dose of 6600 μGy was accumulated. By the end of the period on 7 May 2010 a total dose of 11,587 μGy was absorbed. Our data were compared with AE-8 MIN, CRESS and ESA-SEE1 models using SPENVIS and with similar observations on American, Japanese and Russian satellites.     

Digital signal processing and numerical analysis for radar in geophysical applications

Numerical solutions for signal processing are described in this work as a contribution to study of echo detection methods for ionospheric sounder design. The ionospheric sounder is a high frequency radar for geophysical applications. The main detection approach has been done by implementing the spread-spectrum techniques using coding methods to improve the radar’s range resolution by transmitting low power. Digital signal processing has been performed and the numerical methods were checked. An algorithm was proposed and its computational complexity was calculated.     

Systematic examination of the geomagnetic storm sudden commencement using multi resolution analysis

Geomagnetic storm sudden commencements (SSC) contain a wealth of information which is useful in many applications. It is important to point out that the SSCs used in this study are sampled at the rate of one sample per second in order get use of such high resolution data. In this paper, two studies are made on the geomagnetic SSC and an SSC onset automatic detection algorithm is introduced. The first study is about finding the relationship between the SSC rise time and its amplitude. Where it is found that there is a positive correlation between the amplitude and the amplitude gradient which is the amplitude divided by rise time. The second study is checking the spectrum of the SSC, starting from its onset until the end of the SSC rise time. This check had proved that the SSC contains both low and high frequency regions. This led us to introduce a new term, namely the SSC variation rate (VR). This VR is defined as the maximum rate of change of the field in the higher-frequency region of the SSC. These two studies were the guide to build an SSC automatic detector of one sample per second data using multi resolution analysis (MRA) of the discrete wavelet transform (DWT). The data set contains 134 SSCs with different VRs that were collected from the Circum-pan Pacific Magnetometer Network (CPMN). It is found that the standard deviation of the detection error is 41 s and that the average error is 9 s. From the calculated error distribution function, it is found that the detection error is within the range of −1.5 to 3 min. The detection process, as will be shown in the article, takes 70 s for one station and 3 min if the decision is related to the detection(s) of other stations. These results demonstrate the superiority of the proposed algorithm over other algorithms in which the detection error ranges between −8 and 5 min and the detection process takes 2–10 min. In addition to being faster and more accurate than the other algorithms, the proposed algorithm is the first algorithm that automatically detects the SSC onset times from high-resolution data unlike previous studies that focused on determining the SSC times automatically using one-minute resolution data.