Identification

Title

Responses of the thermosphere and ionosphere system to concurrent solar flares and geomagnetic storms

Abstract

We conducted numerical simulations to examine dayside thermosphere and ionosphere responses to concurrent solar flares and a geomagnetic storm during 6–11 September 2017, as well as the interplay of flare and storm effects. We found that E -region electron density response to the flares was much smaller inside the auroral oval than it was outside the auroral oval due to an extra source of ionization by auroral particle precipitation. During quiet times in this period, flare enhanced ionization, which decreased daytime eastward electric fields, caused an initial weakening of the vertical E × B drifts. This weakening of the vertical E × B drifts was on the order of ~20% for an X8.2 flare in this period. During storm times, flare-induced initial changes of the vertical plasma drifts varied between being positive and being negative, depending on latitudes, due to storm-time disturbance dynamo effects. Storm effects also overall weakened flare effects on geopotential height, ionospheric F 2 peak height hmF 2, and ionospheric F 2 peak electron density NmF 2. In addition, storm effects changed the latitudinal distributions of flare effects on hmF 2, NmF 2, vertical plasma drifts, and O/N 2. On the other hand, no major X-class flare occurred shortly before or during the storm. Model simulations indicate that the weaker C- and M-class flares that occurred before and during the storm had a minor effect on the amplitude of the large-scale traveling atmosphere disturbances generated by the storm.

Resource type

document

Resource locator

Unique resource identifier

code

https://n2t.org/ark:/85065/d7ms3tq4

codeSpace

Dataset language

eng

Spatial reference system

code identifying the spatial reference system

Classification of spatial data and services

Topic category

geoscientificInformation

Keywords

Keyword set

keyword value

Text

originating controlled vocabulary

title

Resource Type

reference date

date type

publication

effective date

2016-01-01T00:00:00Z

Geographic location

West bounding longitude

East bounding longitude

North bounding latitude

South bounding latitude

Temporal reference

Temporal extent

Begin position

End position

Dataset reference date

date type

publication

effective date

2020-03-01T00:00:00Z

Frequency of update

Quality and validity

Lineage

Conformity

Data format

name of format

version of format

Constraints related to access and use

Constraint set

Use constraints

Limitations on public access

None

Responsible organisations

Responsible party

contact position

OpenSky Support

organisation name

UCAR/NCAR - Library

full postal address

PO Box 3000

Boulder

80307-3000

email address

opensky@ucar.edu

web address

http://opensky.ucar.edu/

name: homepage

responsible party role

pointOfContact

Metadata on metadata

Metadata point of contact