Susanne Vennerstrøm

Dayside magnetic ULF power at high latitudes: A possible long‐term proxy for the solar wind velocity?

We examine the occurrence of dayside high-latitude magnetic variations with periods between 2 and 10 min statistically using data from around 20 magnetic stations in Greenland, Scandinavia, and Canada, many of which have been in operation for a full solar cycle. We derive time series of the power spectral density (psd) in two different frequency bands: 2-4 min period and 5-10 min period. The average psd in these bands maximizes in the early morning sector between auroral and cusp latitudes. The solar cycle variation of the average psd in the two bands during the morning hours is markedly different from the solar cycle variation of regular geomagnetic activity, measured by indices such as aa and Dst. The spectral band power is generally at minimum just prior to solar maximum and has a strong maximum in the late declining phase associated with high-speed streams from coronal holes. We have compared the spectral band power with satellite observations of the solar wind velocity and find a high log-linear correlation in the range 0.7-0.8. The highest correlation is found in the 2-4 min band. Contrary to this, the correlation with Bs and vBs is very weak (∼0.0-0.2), except in the 5-10 min band for the auroral stations. We find the results encouraging for the use of dayside spectral band power at high-latitude stations as a tool for investigating past solar wind variations.

Geoeffectiveness of Coronal Mass Ejections in the SOHO Era

The main objective of the study is to determine the probability distributions of the geomagnetic Dst index as a function of the coronal mass ejection (CME) and solar flare parameters for the purpose of establishing a probabilistic forecast tool for the intensity of geomagnetic storms. We examined several CME and flare parameters as well as the effect of successive CME occurrence in changing the probability for a certain range of Dst index values. The results confirm some previously known relationships between remotely observed properties of solar eruptive events and geomagnetic storms: the importance of the initial CME speed, apparent width, source position, and the class of the associated solar flare. We quantify these relationships in a form that can be used for future space-weather forecasting. The results of the statistical study are employed to construct an empirical statistical model for predicting the probability of the geomagnetic storm intensity based on remote solar observations of CMEs and flares.

Three-phase Evolution of a Coronal Hole. I. 360° Remote Sensing and In Situ Observations

We investigate the evolution of a well-observed, long-lived, low-latitude coronal hole (CH) over 10 solar rotations in the year 2012. By combining extreme ultraviolet (EUV) imagery from the Solar TErrestrial RElations Observatories (STEREO-A/B) and the Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO), we are able to track and study the entire evolution of the CH having a continuous 360° coverage of the Sun. The remote sensing data are investigated together with in situ solar wind plasma and magnetic field measurements from STEREO-A/B, the Advanced Composition Explorer (ACE), and WIND. From this, we obtain how different evolutionary states of the CH as observed in the solar atmosphere (changes in EUV intensity and area) affect the properties of the associated high-speed stream measured at 1 au. Most distinctly pronounced for the CH area, three development phases are derived: (a) growing, (b) maximum, and (c) decaying phase. During these phases the CH area (a) increases over a duration of around three months from about 1 1010 km2 to 6 1010 km2, (b) keeps a rather constant area for about one month of >9 1010 km2, and (c) finally decreases in the following three months below 1 1010 km2 until the CH cannot be identified anymore. The three phases manifest themselves also in the EUV intensity and in in situ measured solar wind proton bulk velocity. Interestingly, the three phases are related to a different range in solar wind speed variations, and we find for the growing phase a range of 460–600 km s−1, for the maximum phase 600–720 km s−1, and for the decaying phase a more irregular behavior connected to slow and fast solar wind speeds of 350–550 km s−1.

The Dependence of the Peak Velocity of High-Speed Solar Wind Streams as Measured in the Ecliptic by ACE and the STEREO satellites on the Area and Co-Latitude of their Solar Source Coronal Holes

Abstract We study the properties of 115 coronal holes in the time range from August 2010 to March 2017, the peak velocities of the corresponding high‐speed streams as measured in the ecliptic at 1 AU, and the corresponding changes of the Kp index as marker of their geoeffectiveness. We find that the peak velocities of high‐speed streams depend strongly on both the areas and the co‐latitudes of their solar source coronal holes with regard to the heliospheric latitude of the satellites. Therefore, the co‐latitude of their source coronal hole is an important parameter for the prediction of the high‐speed stream properties near the Earth. We derive the largest solar wind peak velocities normalized to the coronal hole areas for coronal holes located near the solar equator and that they linearly decrease with increasing latitudes of the coronal holes. For coronal holes located at latitudes ≳60°, they turn statistically to zero, indicating that the associated high‐speed streams have a high chance to miss the Earth. Similarly, the Kp index per coronal hole area is highest for the coronal holes located near the solar equator and strongly decreases with increasing latitudes of the coronal holes. We interpret these results as an effect of the three‐dimensional propagation of high‐speed streams in the heliosphere; that is, high‐speed streams arising from coronal holes near the solar equator propagate in direction toward and directly hit the Earth, whereas solar wind streams arising from coronal holes at higher solar latitudes only graze or even miss the Earth.

Characteristics of Low-latitude Coronal Holes near the Maximum of Solar Cycle 24

We investigate the statistics of 288 low-latitude coronal holes extracted from SDO/AIA-193 filtergrams over the time range of 2011 January 01–2013 December 31. We analyze the distribution of characteristic coronal hole properties, such as the areas, mean AIA-193 intensities, and mean magnetic field densities, the local distribution of the SDO/AIA-193 intensity and the magnetic field within the coronal holes, and the distribution of magnetic flux tubes in coronal holes. We find that the mean magnetic field density of all coronal holes under study is 3.0 ± 1.6 G, and the percentaged unbalanced magnetic flux is 49 ± 16%. The mean magnetic field density, the mean unsigned magnetic field density, and the percentaged unbalanced magnetic flux of coronal holes depend strongly pairwise on each other, with correlation coefficients cc > 0.92. Furthermore, we find that the unbalanced magnetic flux of the coronal holes is predominantly concentrated in magnetic flux tubes: 38% (81%) of the unbalanced magnetic flux of coronal holes arises from only 1% (10%) of the coronal hole area, clustered in magnetic flux tubes with field strengths >50 G (10 G). The average magnetic field density and the unbalanced magnetic flux derived from the magnetic flux tubes correlate with the mean magnetic field density and the unbalanced magnetic flux of the overall coronal hole (cc > 0.93). These findings give evidence that the overall magnetic characteristics of coronal holes are governed by the characteristics of the magnetic flux tubes.

Feasibility of a Constellation of Miniature Satellites for Perform ing Measurements of the Magnetic Field of the Earth

This paper studies the requirements for a small constellation of satellites to perform measurements of the magnetic field of the Earth and a payload and boom design for such a mission is discussed. After studying communication, power and mass requirements it is found that it is feasible to develop a 10 x10 x 30 cm3 satellite with a mass of about 2.5,kg, which can fulfill such a mission. We also study the feasibility of controlling a constellation of such small satellites by means of air drag by extracting one or more flaps. It is found that it is indeed possible, but for best performance it is limited to altitudes around 450 to 550,km, depending on the time of launch with regard to the solar sunspot cycle.