Yasubumi Kubota

Global MHD simulation of magnetospheric response of preliminary impulse to large and sudden enhancement of the solar wind dynamic pressure

A sudden increase in the dynamic pressure of solar wind generates a prominent and transient change in ground-based magnetometer records worldwide, which is called a sudden commencement (SC). The magnetic field variation due to an SC at high latitudes shows a bipolar change, which consists of a preliminary impulse (PI) and main impulse (MI). The largest recorded SC had an amplitude of more than 200 nT with a spiky waveform at low latitudes, and the mechanism causing this super SC is unknown. Here, we investigate the cause of the super SC using a newly developed magnetosphere-ionosphere coupling simulation, which enables us to investigate the magnetospheric response to a large increase in the solar wind dynamic pressure. To simulate SCs, the dynamic pressure of the solar wind is increased to 2, 5, 10, and 16 larger than that under the stationary condition, and two different types of dynamic pressure increase are adopted by changing the solar wind density only or the solar wind speed only. It was found that the magnetic field variations of the PI and MI are several times larger and faster for a jump in the speed than for a jump in the density. It is inferred that a solar wind velocity of more than 2500 km/s in the downstream shock, which cannot be directly simulated in this study, would be consistent with the super SC.

Polar cap potential saturation during the Bastille Day storm event using global MHD simulation

We investigated the temporal variations and saturation of the cross polar cap potential (CPCP) in the Bastille Day storm event (2000/7/15) by global magnetohydrodynamics (MHD) simulation. The CPCP is considered to depend on the electric field and dynamic pressure of the solar wind as well as on the ionospheric conductivity. Previous studies considered only the ionospheric conductivity due to solar extreme ultraviolet (EUV) variations. In this paper, we dealt with the changes in the CPCP attributable to auroral conductivity variations caused by pressure enhancement in the inner magnetosphere owing to energy injection from the magnetosphere because the energy injection is considerably enhanced in a severe magnetic storm event. Our simulation reveals that the auroral conductivity enhancement is significant for the CPCP variation in a severe magnetic storm event. The numerical results concerning the Bastille Day event show that the ionospheric conductivity averaged over the auroral oval is enhanced up to 18 mho in the case of Bz of less than -59 nT. On the other hand, the average conductivity without the auroral effect is almost 6 mho throughout the entire period. Resultantly, the saturated CPCP is about 240 kV in the former and 704 kV in the latter when Bz is -59 nT. This result indicates that the CPCP variations could be correctly reproduced when the time variation of auroral conductivity caused by pressure enhancement due to the energy injection from the magnetosphere is correctly considered in a severe magnetic storm event.