Geosynchronous magnetic field response to the large and fast solar wind dynamic pressure change

Abstract

We present a comparison of large and sharp solar wind dynamic pressure changes, observed by several spacecraft, with fast disturbances in the magnetospheric magnetic field measured by the GOES-8, 9 and 10 geosynchronous satellites. Almost 400 solar wind pressure changes in the period 1996–2003 were selected for this study. Using the large statistics we confirmed that increases (decreases) in the dynamic pressure always results in increases (decreases) in the magnitude of geosynchronous B z component. The amplitude of the geosynchronous B z response strongly depends on the location of observer relative to the noon meridian, from the value of solar wind pressure before the disturbance arriving and firstly – from the amplitude of the pressure change. It is shown that 3D MHD numerical simulation of geosynchronous B z response performed for different pressure changes inside 9–15 LT range is consistent well with the experimental results.