New insights on geomagnetic storms from observations and modeling
- Los Alamos National Laboratory
Understanding the response at Earth of the Sun's varying energy output and forecasting geomagnetic activity is of central interest to space science, since intense geomagnetic storms may cause severe damages on technological systems and affect communications. Episodes of southward (Bz<O) interplanetary magnetic field (IMF) which lead to disturbed geomagnetic conditions are associated either with coronal mass ejections (CMEs) and possess long and continuous negative IMF Bz excursions, or with high speed solar wind streams (HSS) whose geoeffectiveness is due to IMF Bz profiles fluctuating about zero with various amplitudes and duration. We show examples of ring current simulations during two geomagnetic storms representative of each interplanetary condition with our kinetic ring current atmosphere interactions model (RAM), and investigate the mechanisms responsible for trapping particles and for causing their loss. We find that periods of increased magnetospheric convection coinciding with enhancements of plasma sheet density are needed for strong ring current buildup. During the HSS-driven storm the convection potential is highly variable and causes small sporadic injections into the ring current. The long period of enhanced convection during the CME-driven storm causes a continuous ring current injection penetrating to lower L shells and stronger ring current buildup.
- Research Organization:
- Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE
- DOE Contract Number:
- AC52-06NA25396
- OSTI ID:
- 956479
- Report Number(s):
- LA-UR-09-00077; LA-UR-09-77; TRN: US201013%%137
- Resource Relation:
- Conference: School and Workshop on Space Plasma Physics ; September 1, 2008 ; Sozopol, Bulgaria
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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