H. W. Kroehl

Relation between satellite observed visible-near infrared emissions, population, economic activity and electric power consumption

The area lit by anthropogenic visible-near infrared emissions (i.e., lights) has been estimated for 21 countries using night-time data from the Defense Meteorological Satellite Program (DMSP) Operational Linescan System (OLS). The area lit is highly correlated to gross domestic product and electric power consumption. Significant outliers exist in the relation between area lit and population. The results indicate that the local level of economic development must be factored into the apportionment of population across the land surface based on DMSP-OLS observed lights.

Radiance calibration of DMSP-OLS low-light imaging data of human settlements

Abstract Nocturnal lighting is a primary method for enabling human activity. Outdoor lighting is used extensively worldwide in residential, commercial, industrial, public facilities, and roadways. A radiance calibrated nighttime lights image of the United States has been assembled from Defense Meteorological Satellite Program (DMSP) Operational Linescan System (OLS). The satellite observation of the location and intensity of nocturnal lighting provide a unique view of humanities presence and can be used as a spatial indicator for other variables that are more difficult to observe at a global scale. Examples include the modeling of population density and energy related greenhouse gas emissions.

Interhemispheric asymmetry of the high-latitude ionospheric convection pattern

The assimilative mapping of ionospheric electrodynamics technique has been used to derive the large-scale high-latitude ionospheric convection patterns simultaneously in both northern and southern hemispheres during the period of January 27-29, 1992. When the interplanetary magnetic field (IMF) Bz component is negative, the convection patterns in the southern hemisphere are basically the mirror images of those in the northern hemisphere. The total cross-polar-cap potential drops in the two hemispheres are similar. When Bz is positive and |By| > Bz, the convection configurations are mainly determined by By and they may appear as normal “two-cell” patterns in both hemispheres much as one would expect under southward IMF conditions. However, there is a significant difference in the cross-polar-cap potential drop between the two hemispheres, with the potential drop in the southern (summer) hemisphere over 50% larger than that in the northern (winter) hemisphere. As the ratio of |By|/Bz decreases (less than one), the convection configuration in the two hemispheres may be significantly different, with reverse convection in the southern hemisphere and weak but disturbed convection in the northern hemisphere. By comparing the convection patterns with the corresponding spectrograms of precipitating particles, we interpret the convection patterns in terms of the concept of merging cells, lobe cells, and viscous cells. Estimates of the “merging cell” potential drops, that is, the potential ascribed to the opening of the dayside field lines, are usually comparable between the two hemispheres, as they should be. The “lobe cell” provides a potential between 8.5 and 26 k V and can differ greatly between hemispheres, as predicted. Lobe cells can be significant even for southward IMF, if |By| > |Bz|. To estimate the potential drop of the “viscous cells,” we assume that the low-latitude boundary layer is on closed field lines. We find that this potential drop varies from case to case, with a typical value of 10 kV. If the source of these cells is truly a viscous interaction at the flank of the magnetopause, the process is likely spatially and temporally varying rather than steady state.

Ionospheric convection response to slow, strong variations in a northward interplanetary magnetic field: A case study for January 14, 1988

We analyze ionospheric convection patterns over the polar regions during the passage of an interplanetary magnetic cloud on January 14, 1988, when the interplanetary magnetic field (IMF) rotated slowly in direction and had a large amplitude. Using the assimilative mapping of ionospheric electrodynamics (AMIE) procedure, we combine simultaneous observations of ionospheric drifts and magnetic perturbations from many different instruments into consistent patterns of high-latitude electrodynamics, focusing on the period of northward IMF. By combining satellite data with ground-based observations, we have generated one of the most comprehensive data sets yet assembled and used it to produce convection maps for both hemispheres. We present evidence that a lobe convection cell was embedded within normal merging convection during a period when the IMF By and Bz components were large and positive. As the IMF became predominantly northward, a strong reversed convection pattern (afternoon-to-morning potential drop of around 100 kV) appeared in the southern (summer) polar cap, while convection in the northern (winter) hemisphere became weak and disordered with a dawn-to-dusk potential drop of the order of 30 kV. These patterns persisted for about 3 hours, until the IMF rotated significantly toward the west. We interpret this behavior in terms of a recently proposed merging model for northward IMF under solstice conditions, for which lobe field lines from the hemisphere tilted toward the Sun (summer hemisphere) drape over the dayside magnetosphere, producing reverse convection in the summer hemisphere and impeding direct contact between the solar wind and field lines connected to the winter polar cap. The positive IMF Bx component present at this time could have contributed to the observed hemispheric asymmetry. Reverse convection in the summer hemisphere broke down rapidly after the ratio |By/Bz| exceeded unity, while convection in the winter hemisphere strengthened. A dominant dawn-to-dusk potential drop was established in both hemispheres when the magnitude of By exceeded that of Bz, with potential drops of the order of 100 kV, even while Bz remained northward. The later transition to southward Bz produced a gradual intensification of the convection, but a greater qualitative change occurred at the transition through |By/Bz| = 1 than at the transition through Bz = 0. The various convection patterns we derive under northward IMF conditions illustrate all possibilities previously discussed in the literature: nearly single-cell and multicell, distorted and symmetric, ordered and unordered, and sunward and antisunward.

An ionospheric conductance model based on ground magnetic disturbance data

An attempt is made to construct an improved ionospheric conductance model employing ground magnetic disturbance data as input. For each of the different regions in the auroral electrojets specified by different combinations of horizontal (ΔH) and vertical (ΔZ) magnetic perturbations, as well as by magnetic local time (MLT), an empirical relationship is obtained between the ionospheric conductance deduced from Chatanika radar data and magnetic disturbances from the nearby College magnetic station. The error involved in the empirical formula is generally of the order of 20–50%. However, some sectors are so poorly covered that uncertainty estimates cannot be made. The new formulas are applied to an average magnetic disturbance distribution to deduce the average conductance distribution. This is compared with a conductance model based on electron precipitation data [Hardy et al., 1987], finding good agreement in terms of the magnitude and distribution pattern. Combining our empirical relationships with the empirical formulas proposed by Robinson et al. [1987], the average energy and energy flux of precipitating electrons are also estimated. Notable similarities exist between the global distribution patterns of these and those obtained by Hardy et al. [1985]. It is proposed that the present conductance model can be used to complement more direct measurements in order to obtain the global distribution needed to study the large-scale electrodynamics of the polar ionosphere. Several interesting characteristics about the auroral electrojet system are apparent from the empirical relationship: (1) For a given magnitude of ΔH, the electric field is relatively stronger in the eastward electrojet region than in the westward electrojet region. (2) The electric field plays a greater role in the intensification of electrojet current than the ionospheric conductance does in the poleward half of the westward electrojet, whereas the opposite trend is apparent in the equatorward half. However, no such different roles of the electric field and conductance is noticeable in the eastward electrojet region. (3) The auroral conductance enhancements tend to be largest around midnight, due to more intense particle fluxes there. (4) The mean particle energy depends on MLT but is relatively insensitive to magnetic activity.

Ionospheric convection response to changing IMF direction

By combining ground-based and satellite-based measurements of ionospheric electric fields, conductivities and magnetic perturbations, we are able to examine the characteristics of instantaneous, ionospheric convection patterns associated with changing directions of the Interplanetary Magnetic Field (IMF). In response to a rapid southward-to-northward turning of the IMF on 23 July 1983, the ionospheric convection reconfigured over a period of 40 minutes. The configuration changed from a conventional two-cell pattern to a contracted four-cell pattern, with reversed convection cells in the high-latitude dayside, associated with a strong potential drop of about 75 kV. Later, in response to a gradual rotation of the IMF from the +Z through the −Y. toward the −Z direction, the nightside cells disappeared and the dawn cell in the reversed pair wrapped around and displaced the dusk cell until a conventional two-cell pattern was reestablished, largely in accord with the qualitative model of Crooker [1988]. Our results suggest that multiple cells can arise as a result of strong southward to northward transitions in the IMF. They appear to persist for sometime thereafter.

Characteristics of ionospheric convection and field-aligned current in the dayside cusp region

The assimilative mapping of ionospheric electrodynamics (AMIE) technique has been used to estimate global distributions of high-latitude ionospheric convection and field-aligned current by combining data obtained nearly simultaneously both from ground and from space. Therefore, unlike the statistical patterns, the “snapshot” distributions derived by AMIE allow us to examine in more detail the distinctions between field-aligned current systems associated with separate magnetospheric processes, especially in the dayside cusp region. By comparing the field-aligned current and ionospheric convection patterns with the corresponding spectrograms of precipitating particles, the following signatures have been identified: (1) For the three cases studied, which all had an IMF with negative y and z components, the cusp precipitation was encountered by the DMSP satellites in the postnoon sector in the northern hemisphere and in the prenoon sector in the southern hemisphere. The equatorward part of the cusp in both hemispheres is in the sunward flow region and marks the beginning of the flow rotation from sunward to antisunward. (2) The pair of field-aligned currents near local noon, i.e., the cusp/mantle currents, are coincident with the cusp or mantle particle precipitation. In distinction, the field-aligned currents on the dawnside and duskside, i.e., the normal region 1 currents, are usually associated with the plasma sheet particle precipitation. Thus the cusp/mantle currents are generated on open field lines and the region 1 currents mainly on closed field lines. (3) Topologically, the cusp/mantle currents appear as an expansion of the region 1 currents from the dawnside and duskside and they overlap near local noon. When By is negative, in the northern hemisphere the downward field-aligned current is located poleward of the upward current; whereas in the southern hemisphere the upward current is located poleward of the downward current. (4) Under the assumption of quasi-steady state reconnection, the location of the separatrix in the ionosphere is estimated and the reconnection velocity is calculated to be between 400 and 550 m/s. The dayside separatrix lies equatorward of the dayside convection throat in the two cases examined.

Universal time variations of the auroral electrojet indices

Using the hourly mean AE indices for the past 20 years, amounting to a total of 175,296 hours, we examine how the longitudinal station gaps of the present AE network affect the ability to monitor accurately the auroral electrojets. The latitudinal shift of the auroral electrojet location with magnetic activity also affects the reliability of the AE indices. These combined effects would result in pronounced universal time (UT) variations of the AE indices. By counting the number of occurrences recorded during the given ranges of activity, say every 100 and 200 nT for the AU and AL indices, respectively, for each hour of universal time, the UT variations of the two indices are examined separately. The result demonstrates clearly that they are strongly dependent upon UT. Furthermore, it is noted that the equatorward expansion of the auroral electrojets is more responsible for the UT variation than are the longitudinal station gaps. For the range of the magnetic activity levels examined in this study, i.e., 0 to 500 nT and 0 to -1000 nT for the AU and AL indices, the centers of the eastward and westward electrojets seem to be located within the latitudinal ranges of 71°-65° and 68°-62°, respectively. The seasonal change of ionospheric conductance also contributes to the UT variation, particularly that of the AL index. While maintaining a similar variation pattern, the amplitude of the variation increases during winter and decreases during summer. It indicates that the UT variation of the AL index is more serious during winter than summer. With more AE stations being located within the former range than the latter, it is easily understood why the AL index is more strongly dependent on UT than is the AU index. Considering such a latitudinal distribution, it is highly probable that the present AL indices often underestimate disturbed conditions during specific universal time intervals, particularly 0200-0800 UT.

Cross-polar cap potential difference, auroral electrojet indices, and solar wind parameters

The cross-polar cap potential difference Φ (KRM) is estimated from ground magnetic perturbation data through the magnetometer inversion method of Kamide, Richmond, and Matsushita (KRM), combined with an “empirical” ionospheric conductance distribution estimated from the DMSP X ray image data. A significant correlation is found between Φ (KRM) and the AE(12) index; Φ (KRM, in kilovolts) = 36 + 0.082 AE(12, in nanoteslas) with the correlation coefficient being 0.80. Φ (KRM) is then compared with the potential difference estimated from a more direct method of the satellite electric field measurements [Weimer et al., 1990] and also with Φ (IMF) based on solar wind parameters [Reiff and Luhmann, 1986]. Φ (IMF) is found to be linearly correlated with Φ (KRM), as Φ (IMF) = 29.8 + 0.999 Φ (KRM), with the highest correlation obtained for a 40-min lag in the interplanetary magnetic field (IMF). Note that Φ (IMF) is systematically larger than Φ (KRM) by 30 kV, suggesting the possibility that the theoretical method overestimates the cross-polar cap potential difference. During steady southward IMF periods where steady Φ (IMF) variations are expected, significant fluctuations in calculated Φ (KRM) values are obtained. Since the decrease in Φ (KRM) is closely associated with enhancements in auroral particle precipitation during these periods, a highly correlative relation between Φ (IMF) and Φ (KRM) cannot be deduced unless the phases of substorms are taken into account. The overall high correlation between them, however, supports the view expressed by Wolf et al. [1986] that directly driven processes are more important than unloading processes during disturbed periods.

Seasonal and solar cycle variations of the auroral electrojet indices

Abstract Using hourly mean auroral electrojet indices for the past 20 years, we examine the seasonal and solar cycle variations of the AU and AL indices as well as the smaller time-scale fluctuations in these indices. The AU and AL indices maximize during summer and equinoctial months, respectively. By removing the effects of the solar conductance from the AU index, it is found that the electric field contribution to the AU index exhibits the same semiannual variation pattern as the AL index, indicating that the semiannual magnetic variations are controlled by the electric field. Since the auroral electrojets are mostly Hall currents flowing in the east–west direction, the fluctuations of the auroral electrojet indices can be interpreted in terms of fluctuations in the north–south component of the electric field and the Hall conductance. The AU fluctuation is largely due to that of the electric field, while the AL fluctuation is attributed to both the electric field and Hall conductance with their contributions being comparable. The high fluctuation of AL compared to that of AU is attributed to particle precipitation associated with substorm activity. However, the fluctuations of the electric field and conductance do not show any noticeable seasonal dependence. The variation pattern of the yearly mean AL index follows the mirror image of the AU index during the past 20 years, indicating that the absolute values of the two indices are proportional to each other. This suggests again that the electric field is the main modulator of magnetic disturbance. On the other hand, they show a tendency to become higher during the declining phase of the solar cycle. This is the same variation pattern confirmed from the aa index. However, the fluctuations of the electric field and the Hall conductance do not show any apparent dependence on the solar cycle.