Ripples going against the flow: How energy propagation determines the global structure of magnetopause surface waves

Abstract

<p>Impulsive solar wind transients, such as pressure pulses and shocks, excite surface waves on the magnetopause. While much of this surface wave energy is advected downtail by the magnetosheath flow, recently it has been shown that some of these waves can be trapped locally forming a standing wave between the northern and southern ionospheres. It appears that this process can occur across most of the dayside magnetopause, however, it is not clear how these surface waves can resist the advective effect of the tailward flow. Through multispacecraft observations, global MHD simulations, and analytic MHD theory we show that azimuthally standing magnetopause surface waves are possible between 9-15h MLT. In this region, surface waves with Poynting vectors directed towards the subsolar point can exactly balance the advective effect of the magnetosheath flow, leading to no overall energy flow. Further downtail, however, the wave’s propagation cannot overcome advection and the usual tailward energy flow occurs. This trapping of magnetopause surface wave energy following the drivers of intense space weather may in turn have important implications on radiation belt, ionospheric, and auroral dynamics.</p>