Quantifying Solar Wind-Polar Cap Interactions

Abstract:

It is well known that the solar wind is a major driver of ultra-low frequency [ULF] power at ground locations from low to high latitudes. However, due to the scarcity of deep polar cap magnetometer sites, it is not clear when, where, or if this is true deep inside the polar cap on open field lines where interplanetary magnetic field [IMF] ULF waves could possibly be directly detected. Given recent observations of very large Joule heating estimates from DMSP data, together with the large heating reported by the CHAMP satellite, it is important to understand the degree to which ULF waves in the solar wind can directly cause such heating. Using a time series of lagged correlation sequences ("dynamic correlograms") between GSM Bz ULF power (computed via data obtained from NASA’s Advanced Composition Explorer [ACE] ahead of Earth in the solar wind) and the horizontal ULF power (H^2=N^2+E^2) from ground-based magnetometers in Earth’s southern polar cap, we investigate the direct penetration of ULF waves from the solar wind into the polar ionosphere during a gamut of space weather conditions at a distributed network of Automated Geophysical Observatories [AGOs] in Antarctica. To infer causation, a predicted lag correlation maximum at each time step is computed by simply dividing the associated distance of ACE from Earth by the concurrent bulk solar wind speed. This technique helps parse out direct penetration of solar wind ULF waves from other sources (e.g., via leakage from closed field line resonances due to the bulk solar wind plasma viscously interacting at dawn/dusk flanks inducing Kelvin-Helmholtz instabilities [KHI] or compressional modes induced by impulses in solar wind dynamic pressure). The identified direct-penetrating ULF waves are related to the DMSP-derived Poynting fluxes by regression analysis, and conclusions are drawn for the importance of the ULF source for the measured heating.