BASIC RESULTS FROM THE PROJECT “INVESTIGATION OF THE GEOMAGNETIC DISTURBANCES PROPAGATION TO MID-LATITUDES AND THEIR INTERPLANETARY DRIVERS IDENTIFICATION FOR THE DEVELOPMENT OF MID-LATITUDE SPACE WEATHER FORECAST”

Abstract

The project is directed to one of the topical tasks of the solar-terrestrial physics: study of the midlatitude effects of the magnetospheric substorms as a key element of the space weather. The goal of the project was to conduct a comprehensive analysis of the spatiotemporal characteristics of magnetospheric substorms and their effects at midlatitudes depending on space weather conditions. For this purpose, studies of various phenomena related to the development of substorm disturbances and their propagation to midlatitudes were carried out. For the first time, an original catalog of the variations of the magnetic field at the midlatitude Bulgarian station Panagjurishte (PAG) was created for the period 2007 - 2022. A methodology was developed and universal programs were created for processing data from European stations, for obtaining maps of the spatial distribution of magnetic variations, and for calculating the midlatitude positive bay (MPB) index. Analyses of events during quiet and disturbed geomagnetic conditions, during slow flows in the solar wind or high speed streams from coronal holes, were carried out. Some cases of supersubstorms have been studied in detail. The hypothesis of the development of an additional substorm current wedge during supersubstorms was confirmed. The morphological features of the polar substorms were also studied. Catalogs of supersubstorms and polar substorms for the past 20 years have been created. The relationships between the statistical distributions of the MPB index and widely used geomagnetic indices and solar wind parameters were established. Cases of occurrence of intense geomagnetically induced currents (GIC) during several strong magnetic storms were identified and analyzed.