分类： 地球科学 >> 空间物理学 提交时间： 2016-12-22
摘要： With the assumption of radial motion and uniform longitudinal distribution of coronal mass ejections (CMEs), we propose a method to eliminate projection effects from the apparent observed CME latitude distribution. This method has been applied to SOHO LASCO data from 1996 January to 2006 December. As a result, we find that the real CME latitude distribution had the following characteristics: (1) High-latitude CMEs (theta > 60 degrees, where theta is the latitude) constituted 3% of all CMEs and mainly occurred during the time when the polar magnetic fields reversed sign. The latitudinal drift of the high-latitude CMEs was correlated with that of the heliospheric current sheet. (2) Four percent of all CMEs occurred in the range 45 degrees <= theta <= 60 degrees. These midlatitude CMEs occurred primarily in 2000, near the middle of 2002, and in 2005, forming a prominent three-peak structure. (3) The highest occurrence probability of low-latitude (theta < 45 degrees) CMEs was at the minimum and during the declining phase of the solar cycle. However, the highest occurrence rate of low-latitude CMEs was at the maximum and during the declining phase of the solar cycle. The latitudinal evolution of low-latitude CMEs did not follow the Sporer sunspot law, which suggests that many CMEs originated outside of active regions.
分类： 地球科学 >> 空间物理学 提交时间： 2016-12-01
摘要： With the assumption of radial motion and uniform longitudinal distribution of coronal mass ejections (CMEs), we propose a method to eliminate projection effects from the apparent observed CME latitude distribution. This method has been applied to SOHO LASCO data from 1996 January to 2006 December. As a result, we find that the real CME latitude distribution had the following characteristics: (1) High-latitude CMEs (theta > 60 degrees, where theta is the latitude) constituted 3% of all CMEs and mainly occurred during the time when the polar magnetic fields reversed sign. The latitudinal drift of the high-latitude CMEs was correlated with that of the heliospheric current sheet. (2) Four percent of all CMEs occurred in the range 45 degrees <= theta <= 60 degrees. These midlatitude CMEs occurred primarily in 2000, near the middle of 2002, and in 2005, forming a prominent three-peak structure. (3) The highest occurrence probability of low-latitude (theta < 45 degrees) CMEs was at the minimum and during the declining phase of the solar cycle. However, the highest occurrence rate of low-latitude CMEs was at the maximum and during the declining phase of the solar cycle. The latitudinal evolution of low-latitude CMEs did not follow the Sporer sunspot law, which suggests that many CMEs originated outside of active regions.
分类： 地球科学 >> 空间物理学 提交时间： 2016-05-12
Yang, Liping
Zhang, Lei
He, Jiansen
Tu, Chuanyi
Wang, Linghua
Marsch, Eckart
Wang, Xin
Zhang, Shaohua
Feng, Xueshang
摘要： Measurements of solar wind turbulence reveal the ubiquity of discontinuities. In this study we investigate how the discontinuities, especially rotational discontinuities (RDs), are formed in MHD turbulence. In a simulation of the decaying compressive three-dimensional (3D) MHD turbulence with an imposed uniform background magnetic field, we detect RDs with sharp field rotations and little variations of magnetic field intensity, as well as mass density. At the same time, in the de Hoffman-Teller frame, the plasma velocity is nearly in agreement with the Alfven speed, and is field-aligned on both sides of the discontinuity. We take one of the identified RDs to analyze its 3D structure and temporal evolution in detail. By checking the magnetic field and plasma parameters, we find that the identified RD evolves from the steepening of the Alfven wave with moderate amplitude, and that steepening is caused by the nonuniformity of the Alfven speed in the ambient turbulence.
分类： 地球科学 >> 空间物理学 提交时间： 2016-05-12
摘要： In this investigation, we first present a statistical result of the interplanetary sources of very strong solar wind dynamic pressure pulses (DPPs) detected by WIND during solar cycle 23. It is found that the vast majority of strong DPPs reside within solar wind disturbances. Although the variabilities of geosynchronous magnetic fields (GMFs) due to the impact of positive DPPs have been well established, there appears to be no systematic investigations on the response of GMFs to negative DPPs. Here, we study both the decompression effects of very strong negative DPPs and the compression from strong positive DPPs on GMFs at different magnetic local time sectors. In response to the decompression of strong negative DPPs, GMFs on the dayside near dawn and near dusk on the nightside, are generally depressed. But near the midnight region, the responses of GMF are very diverse, being either positive or negative. For part of the events when GOES is located at the midnight sector, the GMF is found to abnormally increase as the result of magnetospheric decompression caused by negative DPPs. It is known that under certain conditions magnetic depression of nightside GMFs can be caused by the impact of positive DPPs. Here, we find that a stronger pressure enhancement may have a higher probability of producing the exceptional depression of GMF at the midnight region. Statistically, both the decompression effect of strong negative DPPs and the compression effect of strong positive DPPs depend on the magnetic local time, which are stronger at the noon sector.
分类： 地球科学 >> 空间物理学 提交时间： 2016-05-12
Yang, Liping
Zhang, Lei
He, Jiansen
Peter, Hardi
Tu, Chuanyi
Wang, Linghua
Zhang, Shaohua
Feng, Xueshang
摘要： The Atmospheric Imaging Assembly instrument on board the Solar Dynamics Observatory has directly imaged the fast-propagating magnetosonic waves (FMWs) successively propagating outward along coronal magnetic funnels. In this study we perform a numerical investigation of the excitation of FMWs in the interchange reconnection scenario, with footpoint shearing flow being used to energize the system and drive the reconnection. The modeling results show that as a result of magnetic reconnection, the plasma in the current sheet is heated up by Joule dissipation to similar to 10 MK and is ejected rapidly, developing the hot outflows. Meanwhile, the current sheet is torn into plasmoids, which are shot quickly both upward and downward. When the plasmoids reach the outflow regions, they impact and collide with the ambient magnetic field there, which consecutively launches FMWs. The FMWs propagate outward divergently away from the impact regions, with a phase speed of the Alfven speed of similar to 1000 km s(-1). In the k-omega. diagram of the Fourier wave power, the FMWs display a broad frequency distribution with a straight ridge that represents the dispersion relation. With the WKB approximation, at the distance of 15Mm from the wave source region, we estimate the energy flux of FMWs to be E similar to 7.0 x 10(6) erg cm(-2) s(-1), which is similar to 50 times smaller than the energy flux related to the tube-channeled reconnection outflow. These simulation results indicate that energetically and dynamically the outflow is far more important than the waves.
分类： 地球科学 >> 空间物理学 提交时间： 2016-05-12
摘要： Dynamic pressure pulses (DPPs) in the solar wind are a significant phenomenon closely related to the solar-terrestrial connection and physical processes of solar wind dynamics. In order to automatically identify DPPs from solar wind measurements, we develop a procedure with a three-step detection algorithm that is able to rapidly select DPPs from the plasma data stream and simultaneously define the transition region where large dynamic pressure variations occur and demarcate the upstream and downstream region by selecting the relatively quiet status before and after the abrupt change in dynamic pressure. To demonstrate the usefulness, efficiency, and accuracy of this procedure, we have applied it to the Wind observations from 1996 to 2008 by successfully obtaining the DPPs. The procedure can also be applied to other solar wind spacecraft observation data sets with different time resolutions.
分类： 地球科学 >> 空间物理学 提交时间： 2016-05-12
摘要： Solar wind dynamic pressure pulse (DPP) structures, across which the dynamic pressure changes abruptly over timescales from a few seconds to several minutes, are often observed in the near-Earth space environment. The space weather effects of DPPs on the magnetosphere-ionosphere coupling system have been widely investigated in the last two decades. In this study, we perform a statistical survey on the properties of DPPs near 1 AU based on nearly 20 years of observations from the WIND spacecraft. It is found that only a tiny fraction of DPPs (around 4.2%) can be regarded as interplanetary shocks. For most DPPs, the total pressure (the sum of the thermal pressure and magnetic pressure) remains in equilibrium, but there also exists a small fraction of DPPs that are not pressure-balanced. The overwhelming majority of DPPs are associated with solar wind disturbances, including coronal mass ejection-related flows, corotating interaction regions, as well as complex ejecta. The annual variations of the averaged occurrence rate of DPPs are roughly in phase with the solar activity during solar cycle 23, and during the rising phase of solar cycle 24.
分类： 地球科学 >> 空间物理学 提交时间： 2016-05-12
摘要： Based on a hybrid galactic cosmic-ray transport model, which incorporated MHD global heliospheric data into Parker's cosmic-ray transport equation, we studied the behavior of the transport of galactic cosmic rays and the corresponding gradients in their flux near the heliopause (HP). We found that, (1) by increasing the ratio of the parallel diffusion coefficient to the perpendicular diffusion coefficient in the interstellar magnetic field of the outer heliosheath, the simulated radial flux near the HP increases as well. As the ratio multiplying factor reached 1010, the radial flux experienced a sudden jump near the HP, similar to what Voyager 1 observed in 2012. (2) The effect of changing the diffusion coefficients' ratio on the radial flux variation depends on the energy of the cosmic rays, the lower the energy, the more pronounced the effect is. (3) The magnitude of the diffusion coefficients also affect the radial flux near the HP, the modulation beyond the HP varies by adjusting the magnitude multiplying factor.
分类： 地球科学 >> 空间物理学 提交时间： 2016-04-22
摘要： A new procedure is proposed to generate planar asymmetric coronas with multi-streamer structures, as shown in SOHO/LASCO observations. The initial coronal magnetic field is separated into potential part and non-potential part. We first fit the potential part by using the sum of magnetic multi-poles, whereas the non-potential part is approximated by the magnetic field induced by some properly fitted current densities. Then the total field is numerically modified in terms of Maxwell's equations. Based on the initial magnetic fields obtained in such a way, we can further compute various complex asymmetric corona structures by solving MHD equations. In order to verify this procedure, we compute the 2-D coronal structures prior to the December, 1996 CME and August, 1999 CME events. The numerical result is on the whole in agreement with observations, and hence set proper backgrounds for further studying the propagation of CME in various coronal structures using numerical computations.
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