SA24A-02
Solar wind driving of ionosphere-thermosphere responses during three storms on St. Patrick's Day.
Tuesday, 15 December 2015: 16:15
2016 (Moscone West)
Olga P Verkhoglyadova1, Bruce Tsurutani2, Anthony J Mannucci1, Attila Komjathy2, Martin G Mlynczak3, Linda A Hunt4 and Larry J Paxton5, (1)Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA, United States, (2)NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA, United States, (3)NASA Langley Research Ctr, Hampton, VA, United States, (4)SSAI, Hampton, VA, United States, (5)Applied Physics Laboratory Johns Hopkins, Laurel, MD, United States
Abstract:
We overview solar wind features of three intense CME-driven storms occurring around the same time in March of 2012, 2013 and 2015 (74 – 80 DOY). Differences in solar wind drivers lead to different ionosphere-thermosphere (IT) responses in time, magnitude, and to different pre-conditioning. The purpose of our study is to establish a correspondence between interplanetary transient structures (parts of a CME or a high-speed-stream) and dynamics of IT parameters over the course of a geomagnetic storm. Detailed analysis will be presented for the St. Patrick’s Day storm of 2015. We introduce global metrics of daytime and dusktime average ionospheric response of VTEC estimates from over ~2000 GPS ground stations distributed globally. Nitric oxide and carbon dioxide cooling radiation fluxes measured by TIMED/SABER instrument are calculated in several latitudinal bins throughout the storm phases. In addition, GUVI observations of the dynamical response of the thermosphere (NO and O/N2) are compared. SSUSI observations of the equatorial ionosphere, particularly the magnitude and separation of the equatorial arcs are considered. In our analysis, metrics are inter-compared to get better understanding of the self-consistent IT response to solar wind driving.
