Possible evidence of virtual resonance in the dayside magnetosphere

Abstract

On day 108, 2001, the Sub‐Auroral Magnetometer Network (SAMNET) and Magnetometers along the Eastern Atlantic Seaboard for Undergraduate Research and Education (MEASURE) magnetometer arrays detected dayside magnetic pulsations at a common frequency of ∼15 mHz at all locations below L = 4. This global pulsation event was associated with alignment of the interplanetary magnetic field with the Sun‐Earth axis, a condition known to generate ultralow‐frequency (ULF) waves in front of the bow shock. The event occurred during the early recovery phase of a geomagnetic storm. Magnetic field measured by the GOES 8 geostationary satellite on the dayside indicated elevated broadband (7–80 mHz) ULF power in the compressional component without a strong peak at 15 mHz. These observations suggest that the global pulsations originated from a compressional magnetohydrodynamic eigenmode oscillation of the inner magnetosphere stimulated by a broadband external disturbance. The equatorial Alfvén velocity corresponding to the toroidal frequencies that were determined with the cross‐phase analysis of SAMNET and MEASURE data showed a gradual decrease of the velocity with L without a clear signature of a plasmapause. The observed properties of the global pulsations are consistent with virtual resonance in the inner magnetosphere.