An empirical model of solar indices and hemispheric power based on DMSP/SSUSI data

Abstract:

In this paper, we investigate correlations that can possibly exist between the electron hemispheric power (Hpe) and various other geomagnetic parameters such as Kp, Ap, 10.7 cm solar flux density (f10.7) and sun spot number (SSN). We analyze a year (2012) of data from the Special Sensor Ultraviolet Spectrographic Imager (SSUSI) of the Defense Meteorological Satellite Program (DMSP) Flight 18 in order to develop an empirical relationship between Hpe and some readily observed proxy. We find strong correlations between Hpe and Kp, Ap, f10.7 and SSN. Our empirical model can be useful in computing the Kp index directly from the SSUSI hemispheric power index and use it to drive a variety of real-time space weather models that depend on the Kp for input since the derived “Kp” reflects the amount of energy deposited at high latitudes rather than the global planetary response captured in the standard Kp index.