Substorms and Their Solar Wind Causes

Consequences of the solar wind input observed as large scale magnetotail dynamics during substorms are reviewed, highlighting results from statistical studies as well as global magnetosphere/ionosphere observations. Among the different solar wind input parameters, the most essential one to initiate reconnection relatively close to the Earth is a southward IMF or a solar wind dawn-to-dusk electric field. Larger substorms are associated with such reconnection events closer to the Earth and the magnetotail can accumulate larger amounts of energy before its onset. Yet, how and to what extent the magnetotail configuration before substorm onset differs for different solar wind driver is still to be understood. A strong solar wind dawn-to-dusk electric field is, however, only a necessary condition for a strong substorm, but not a sufficient one. That is, there are intervals when the solar wind input is processed in the magnetotail without the usual substorm cycle, suggesting different modes of flux transport. Furthermore, recent global observations suggest that the magnetotail response during the substorm expansion phase can be also controlled by plasma sheet density, which is coupled to the solar wind on larger time-scales than the substorm cycle. To explain the substorm dynamics it is therefore important to understand the different modes of energy, momentum, and mass transport within the magnetosphere as a consequence of different types of solar wind-magnetosphere interaction with different time-scales that control the overall magnetotail configuration, in addition to the internal current sheet instabilities leading to large scale tail current sheet dissipation.     

New Insights on Geomagnetic Storms from Model Simulations Using Multi-Spacecraft Data

The forecast of the terrestrial ring current as a major contributor to the stormtime Dst index and a predictor of geomagnetic storms is of central interest to ‘space weather’ programs. We thus discuss the dynamical coupling of the solar wind to the Earth's magnetosphere during several geomagnetic storms using our ring current-atmosphere interactions model and coordinated space-borne data sets. Our model calculates the temporal and spatial evolution of H⁺, O⁺, and He⁺ ion distribution functions considering time-dependent inflow from the magnetotail, adiabatic drifts, and outflow from the dayside magnetopause. Losses due to charge exchange, Coulomb collisions, and scattering by EMIC waves are included as well. As initial and boundary conditions we use complementary data sets from spacecraft located at key regions in the inner magnetosphere, Polar and the geosynchronous LANL satellites. We present recent model simulations of the stormtime ring current energization due to the enhanced large-scale convection electric field, which show the transition from an asymmetric to a symmetric ring current during the storm and challenge the standard theories of (a) substorm-driven, and (b) symmetric ring current. Near minimum Dst there is a factor of ∼ 10 variation in the intensity of the dominant ring current ion specie with magnetic local time, its energy density reaching maximum in the premidnight to postmidnight region. We find that the O⁺ content of the ring current increases after interplanetary shocks and reaches largest values near Dst minimum; ∼ 60% of the total ring current energy was carried by O⁺ during the main phase of the 15 July 2000 storm. The effects of magnetospheric convection and losses due to collisions and wave-particle interactions on the global ring current energy balance are calculated during different storm phases and intercompared. This revised version was published online in August 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Signature of the 11-Year Cycle in the Upper Atmosphere

In the last 45 years I have studied the thermal structure of the atmosphere from the thermosphere down to the stratosphere, and found evidence of its variability in relationship with the change of solar irradiation during the 11-year solar cycle. I would review, in the light of recent model results, the measurements which I had made since the 1960s and which, for some of them, did not find any explanation at the time of their publication. The data were obtained by two different techniques, rockets and lidars and correspond to different regions of the atmosphere from the upper thermosphere to the stratosphere. The expectation was until recently that the atmosphere should be warmed by an increase of solar flux in the course of the solar cycle due to the increase of UV flux. It has been shown to be the case in the tropical stratosphere and at all latitudes in the upper thermosphere. But, at high and mid latitudes and at other altitudes, the reverse situation was found to exist and, until recently, this cooling observed in parts of the atmosphere with increasing solar flux had never been simulated by models. In addition to reviewing our own data, the paper will present recent results using other dataset which support our observations. It is only recently that we succeeded with a model able to tune the forcing by planetary waves at the tropopause level and thus reproduce such behaviour.     

Solar Influences on Dynamical Coupling Between the Stratosphere and Troposphere

We use a simplified atmospheric general circulation model (AGCM) to investigate the response of the lower atmosphere to thermal perturbations in the lower stratosphere. The results show that generic heating of the lower stratosphere tends to weaken the sub-tropical jets and the tropospheric mean meridional circulations. The positions of the jets, and the extent of the Hadley cells, respond to the distribution of the stratospheric heating, with low latitude heating displacing them poleward, and uniform heating displacing them equatorward. The patterns of response to the low latitude heating are similar to those found to be associated with solar variability in previous observational data analysis, and to the effects of varying solar UV radiation in sophisticated AGCMs. In order to investigate the chain of causality involved in converting the stratospheric thermal forcing to a tropospheric climate signal we conduct an experiment which uses an ensemble of model spin-ups to analyse the time development of the response to an applied stratospheric perturbation. We find that the initial effect of the change in static stability at the tropopause is to reduce the eddy momentum flux convergence in this region. This is followed by a vertical transfer of the momentum forcing anomaly by an anomalous mean circulation to the surface, where it is partly balanced by surface stress anomalies. The unbalanced part drives the evolution of the vertically integrated zonal flow. We conclude that solar heating of the stratosphere may produce changes in the circulation of the troposphere even without any direct forcing below the tropopause. We suggest that the impact of the stratospheric changes on wave propagation is key to the mechanisms involved.     

Particle Acceleration in a Three-Dimensional Model of Reconnecting Coronal Magnetic Fields

Particle acceleration in large-scale turbulent coronal magnetic fields is considered. Using test particle calculations, it is shown that both cellular automata and three dimensional MHD models lead to the production of relativistic particles on sub-second timescales with power law distribution functions. In distinction with the monolithic current sheet models for solar flares, particles gain energy by multiple interactions with many current sheets. Difficulties that need to be addressed, such as feedback between particle acceleration and MHD, are discussed.     

“嫦娥一号”卫星观测近月太阳风离子特征

"嫦娥一号"卫星的太阳风离子探测器(SWIDs)的科学目标是研究太阳风与月球的相互作用以及相应的近月空间等离子体环境。文章利用"嫦娥一号"卫星SWIDs探测器在2007年12月30日的观测数据对近月太阳风等离子体环境,包括向阳侧太阳风离子、"拾起"离子以及在月球尾迹边界处的太阳风离子的特征进行分析,得到以下主要观测结果:1)在慢速太阳风中观测到双峰结构,分别为太阳风中的氢离子和二价氦离子;2)在行星际磁场具有明显昏向(+By)分量期间,在月球向阳侧持续观测到有月表散射或反射后被拾起的太阳风离子;3)与入射的太阳风离子不同,这些拾起的太阳风离子具有明显的角度分布特征;4)在行星际磁场昏向(晨向)期间,太阳风中的氢离子在月球尾迹北半球的边界处呈现减速(加速)特征并进入尾迹;而并未发现氦离子进入尾迹的特征。"嫦娥一号"卫星的这些观测数据对于认识近月空间等离子体环境有着重要的意义。     

基于视觉测量的太阳翼模态参数在轨辨识

针对传统接触式振动测量方法的缺点,提出一种基于视觉测量的太阳翼模态参数在轨辨识方法.具体过程包括相机标定、标志点检测、三维坐标解算和模态辨识等.利用两台相机和一台计算机构成的双目立体视觉测量系统进行了地面试验,测量得到了太阳翼测点处的振动位移响应,然后采用ERA算法辨识出了真实太阳翼的两阶主要模态参数.通过与激光测振仪测量结果进行比较,验证了上述方案的有效性.实验表明,视觉测量方法设备简单,灵活性高,是一种理想的在轨振动测量方法.     

Dust Acoustic Wave in Dusty Plasmas With Streaming Ions Under Ultraviolet Irradiation

The reductive perturbation method is applied to investigate the dust acoustic soliton in dusty plasmas with streaming ions under ultraviolet irradiation theoretically and numerically. The self-consistent dust charge variation is taken into account. It is shown that the ultraviolet irradiation can significantly lower the magnitude of the dust negative charge, and ion streaming velocity firstly raise the magnitude of the dust negative charge and then lower it. With the growth of (Ultraviolet) UV photo flux or ion streaming velocity, the phase velocity and width of the solitary waves decrease, whereas its amplitude increases.      

极端太阳风条件下的磁层顶位形

基于极端太阳风条件下的三维MHD数值模拟数据, 构建了一种极端太阳风条件下的三维非对称磁层顶位形模型. 所提出的模型考虑了行星际南向磁场(IMF) B_z日下点距离侵蚀的饱和效应, 太阳风动压B_d对磁层顶张角影响的饱和效应, 赤道面、昼夜子午面磁层顶的不对称性以及极尖区的内凹结构和内凹中心的移动, 并利用Levenberg-Marquart多参量非线性拟合方法拟合了模型参数. 数值模拟研究表明, 在极端太阳风条件下, 随B_d增大, 磁层顶日下点距离减小, 磁层顶磁尾张角几乎不变; 随南向(IMF)B_z增大, 磁层顶日下点距离略有减小, 磁层顶磁尾张角减小, 极尖区内凹中心向低纬移动. 通过对2010年8月1日太阳风暴事件验证发现, 本文所建立的模型能够描述极端太阳风条件下的三维磁层顶位形.      

太阳风暴及其对人类社会活动的影响

第24个太阳活动周峰年即将到来。太阳风暴由于其给现代人类社会活动带来的巨大灾难,引起了越来越多的关住。文章首先回顾了太阳风暴及其对人类社会活动的影响,然后对历史上1859年卡林顿事件中太阳风暴和近几十年来著名的太阳风暴的强度进行了比较,最后简要介绍了太阳风暴所涉及的科学和技术问题,并且提出了减轻太阳风暴给社会活动带来灾害的对策。