Interplanetary coronal mass ejections (ICMEs) are a significant feature of the heliospheric environment and the primary cause of adverse space weather at the Earth. ICME propagation and the evolution of ICME magnetic field structure during propagation are still not fully understood. We analyze the magnetic field structures of 18 ICME magnetic flux ropes observed by radially aligned spacecraft in the inner heliosphere. Similarity in the underlying flux rope structures is determined through the application of a simple technique that maps the magnetic field profile from one spacecraft to the other. In many cases, the flux ropes show very strong underlying similarities at the different spacecraft. The mapping technique reveals similarities that are not readily apparent in the unmapped data and is a useful tool when determining whether magnetic field time series observed at different spacecraft are associated with the same ICME. Lundquist fitting has been applied to the flux ropes, and the rope orientations have been determined; macroscale differences in the profiles at the aligned spacecraft may be ascribed to differences in flux rope orientation. Assuming that the same region of the ICME was observed by the aligned spacecraft in each case, the fitting indicates some weak tendency for the rope axes to reduce in inclination relative to the solar equatorial plane and to align with the solar east‐west direction with heliocentric distance.
Magnetosheath jets are localized high‐dynamic pressure pulses originating at Earth's bow shock and propagating earthward through the magnetosheath. Jets can influence magnetospheric dynamics upon impacting the magnetopause; however, many jets dissipate before reaching it. In this study we present a database of 13,096 jets observed by the Time History of Events and Macroscale Interactions during Substorms spacecraft from 2008 to 2018, spanning a solar cycle. Each jet is associated with upstream solar wind conditions from OMNI. We statistically examine how solar wind conditions control the likelihood of jets forming at the shock, and the conditions favorable for jets to propagate through the magnetosheath and reach the magnetopause. We see that, for each solar wind quantity, these two effects are separate, but when combined, we find that jets are over 17 times more likely to reach and potentially impact the magnetopause when the interplanetary magnetic field (IMF) orientation is at a low cone angle, and approximately 8 times more likely during high speed solar wind. Low IMF magnitude, high Alfvén Mach number, and low density approximately double the number of jets at the magnetopause, while β and dynamic pressure display no net effect. Due to the strong dependence on wind speed, we infer that jet impact rates may be solar cycle dependent as well as vary during solar wind transients. This is an important step towards forecasting the magnetospheric effects of magnetosheath jets, as it allows for predictions of jet impact rates based on measurements of the upstream solar wind.
Magnetosheath jets constitute a significant coupling effect between the solar wind (SW) and the magnetosphere of the Earth. In order to investigate the effects and forecasting of these jets, we present the first‐ever statistical study of the jet production during large‐scale SW structures like coronal mass ejections (CMEs), stream interaction regions (SIRs) and high speed streams (HSSs). Magnetosheath data from Time History of Events and Macroscale Interactions during Substorms (THEMIS) spacecraft between January 2008 and December 2020 serve as measurement source for jet detection. Two different jet definitions were used to rule out statistical biases induced by our jet detection method. For the CME and SIR + HSS lists, we used lists provided by literature and expanded on incomplete lists using OMNI data to cover the time range of May 1996 to December 2020. We find that the number and total time of observed jets decrease when CME‐sheaths hit the Earth. The number of jets is lower throughout the passing of the CME‐magnetic ejecta (ME) and recovers quickly afterward. On the other hand, the number of jets increases during SIR and HSS phases. We discuss a few possibilities to explain these statistical results.
<p>Plasma jets in the magnetosheath are identified as strong local enhancements in dynamic pressure. Being created at the bow shock, they are able to traverse the entire magnetosheath and impact the magnetopause. There, they can severely indent the boundary, set up waves on it, and trigger magnetic reconnection. They are a key yet heavily underexplored element in the solar wind &#8211; magnetosphere coupling. Jets are mostly (but not exclusively) observed downstream of the quasi-parallel shock. Consequently, they have been observed significantly more often under low interplanetary magnetic field cone angle conditions.</p><p>In this study, we revisit the occurrence of jets, this time taking into account the whole space of parameters of solar wind input conditions. We answer the question where in this space jet occurrences cluster and how the emerging patterns change when the solar wind input becomes significantly different in nature, e.g., under the influence of coronal mass ejections or stream interaction regions.</p>
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