Observations of solar‐wind‐driven progression of interplanetary magnetic field BY‐related dayside ionospheric disturbances

Abstract

Observations from August 2 and 3, 1991, of poleward progressing, dayside convection disturbances accompanied by geomagnetic perturbations and ionospheric radio wave absorption have been analyzed and compared to variations in the solar wind parameters as observed from the IMP 8 satellite. The convection disturbances appear to start at dayside cusp latitudes from where they progress antisunward to high latitudes. The reported observations have enabled calculations of the progression directions and velocities and precise estimates of the delays between solar wind variations as measured by the IMP 8 satellite and ionospheric convection changes as observed from an array of polar magnetic observatories. The progressing ionospheric disturbance events occur during intervals of southward interplanetary magnetic fields (negative interplanetary magnetic field (IMF) BZ component); they are found to be closely related to variations of the east‐west component BY of the IMF. The close coupling between the solar wind and the polar ionosphere(s) is explained in an open magnetospheric model in which the geomagnetic field extending from a localized region of the dayside polar cap merges with the southward interplanetary field. Variations in the IMF BY component are reproduced in corresponding modulations of the east‐west component of the plasma flow at the ionospheric foot points of the connecting “open” field lines. The perturbations of the plasma flow persist while the open field lines are convected with the ionospheric plasma across part of the dayside polar cap. The observed geomagnetic perturbations result from the combined effects of field‐aligned currents and horizontal ionospheric currents, notably the convection‐related Hall currents. The associated radio wave absorption events are explained as the result of E region electron heating by the horizontal electric fields associated with the convection enhancements.