Numerical simulation of magnetospheric ULF waves excited by positive and negative impulses of solar wind dynamic pressure

Abstract

The sources of ultra low frequency (ULF) waves in the magnetosphere are generally believed to be either the external solar wind perturbations or the internal plasma instabilities. When a sudden impulse of the solar wind dynamic pressure impinges on the magnetopause, ULF waves might be excited and thus the solar wind energy is transported into the earth’s magnetosphere. In this paper, we study the ULF waves excited by different kinds of sudden solar wind pressure impulses through an MHD simulation. We primarily focus on the responses of the earth’s magnetosphere to positive/negative impulses of solar wind dynamic pressure, and positive-negative impulse pairs. The simulation results show that the ULF waves excited by positive and negative impulse have the same amplitude and frequency, with 180° difference in phase, if the amplitude and durations of the input impulses are the same. In addition, it is found that field line resonances (FLRs) occur at certain L-shell regions of the earth’s magnetosphere after the impact of different positive-negative impulse pairs, which appear to be related to the duration of the impulses and the time interval between the sequential impulses. Another result is that the energy from the solar wind could be transported deeper into the inner magnetosphere by an impulse pair than by a single pulse impact. The results presented in this paper could help us to better understand how energy is transported from solar wind to the earth’s magnetosphere via ULF waves. Also, these results provide some new clues to understanding of how energetic particles in the inner magnetosphere response to different kinds of solar wind pressure impulse impacts including interplanetary shocks.