Strong thermospheric response to the almost undetectable substorm on May 29, 2023

IF 1.8 4区地球科学 Q3 GEOCHEMISTRY & GEOPHYSICS

Journal of Atmospheric and Solar-Terrestrial Physics Pub Date : 2025-01-14 DOI:10.1016/j.jastp.2025.106430

Yongliang Zhang , Qian Wu , Wenbin Wang , Larry Paxton , Robert Schaefer , Dong Lin , Lying Qian , Haonan Wu , Kun Wu , Ying Zou , Martin Connors

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引用次数: 0

Abstract

A ground based FPI (Fabry Perot Interferometer) at the Athabasca Observatory detected an unusual strong and storm-like equatorward meridional wind of up to 450 m/s on May 29, 2023, a geomagnetically quiet day (AE < 150 nT, Kp < 1). F18 DMSP SSUSI, a Far Ultra-Violet (FUV) spectrograph imager, observed a long lasting (∼7 h) auroral substorm on the same day. TIMED/GUVI data showed a O/N₂ depletion that extended to mid/low latitudes over a limited longitude range in the northern hemisphere. Concurrent SuperDARN measurements indicated strong plasma convection around the substorm location, suggesting a strong local heating (Joule and particle precipitation heating) near the substorm location. This strong and localized heating caused the storm-like response in the thermospheric meridional wind and composition. Furthermore, the FPI also observed a strong zonal wind (up to 180 m/s), which changed its direction from westward to eastward during the substorm. Such a change is due to the competition between the pressure gradient and Coriolis forces. In the Northern Hemisphere, the Coriolis force is westward with an equatorward meridional wind during the substorm; the direction of the pressure gradient force changed from westward to eastward due to changes in the relative locations of the observatory and the substorm. A strong IMF B_y and periodic variation in the IMF likely provide a favorable upstream condition for continuous energy input from the solar wind to the magnetosphere and/or the release of the stored magnetospheric energy into the thermosphere to drive the long duration substorm and the observed thermospheric changes.

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来源期刊

Journal of Atmospheric and Solar-Terrestrial Physics 地学-地球化学与地球物理

CiteScore

4.10

自引率

5.30%

发文量

审稿时长

6 months

期刊介绍： The Journal of Atmospheric and Solar-Terrestrial Physics (JASTP) is an international journal concerned with the inter-disciplinary science of the Earth''s atmospheric and space environment, especially the highly varied and highly variable physical phenomena that occur in this natural laboratory and the processes that couple them. The journal covers the physical processes operating in the troposphere, stratosphere, mesosphere, thermosphere, ionosphere, magnetosphere, the Sun, interplanetary medium, and heliosphere. Phenomena occurring in other "spheres", solar influences on climate, and supporting laboratory measurements are also considered. The journal deals especially with the coupling between the different regions. Solar flares, coronal mass ejections, and other energetic events on the Sun create interesting and important perturbations in the near-Earth space environment. The physics of such "space weather" is central to the Journal of Atmospheric and Solar-Terrestrial Physics and the journal welcomes papers that lead in the direction of a predictive understanding of the coupled system. Regarding the upper atmosphere, the subjects of aeronomy, geomagnetism and geoelectricity, auroral phenomena, radio wave propagation, and plasma instabilities, are examples within the broad field of solar-terrestrial physics which emphasise the energy exchange between the solar wind, the magnetospheric and ionospheric plasmas, and the neutral gas. In the lower atmosphere, topics covered range from mesoscale to global scale dynamics, to atmospheric electricity, lightning and its effects, and to anthropogenic changes.