Solar daily variation at geomagnetic observatories in Pakistan

Abstract

A study of solar daily variation is performed using the famous Chapman–Miller method for solar cycles 22 & 23 (1986–2007). The objective is to study the characteristics of Sq variation at Pakistani geomagnetic observatories using solar harmonics and a more traditional five quietest day's method. The data recorded at the Karachi geomagnetic observatory for SC 22 and 23 and data sets from other Pakistani geomagnetic observatories; Sonmiani, Quetta and Islamabad are analyzed for H, D and Z components of the geomagnetic field.Except for the D and Z components at Karachi and Sonmiani and H component at Islamabad, the two solar daily variations correlated well with each other. Also, the synthesized daily variation from the solar harmonics of H, D and Z components explained the equivalent Sq current system reasonably well for all seasons.For H component, the first solar harmonic (s1) obtained from spherical harmonic analysis of the data, appeared as the largest harmonic with no significant changes for the seasonal division of data. However, for D and Z components, amplitudes are comparable, but undergo distinct variations. s1 for H and D components increases with magnetic activity while for Z component it is the largest for the medium phase of magnetic activity. With the sunspot number division of data, the weighted mean of the Wolf ratio of all three components is in good agreement with the previous studies.The synthesized solar daily variation for D component, S(D), at Karachi, Sonmiani, Quetta and Islamabad did not show any signs of winter anomaly for the period studied. However, S(D) variation at Karachi during winter season showed morning minimum followed by a maximum at local noon and another minimum in the afternoon. We suggest this could be the effects of Equatorial Ionospheric Anomaly (EIA) observable at the Karachi observatory only during the winter season. Similarly, much disturbed in equinoctial and summer months, S(Z) illustrated an unwavering daily variation for the winter season at the Karachi observatory for both solar cycles. We find that it is the vertical component which is more strongly correlated with the mean monthly sunspot number and F10.7 solar radio flux. An interesting result obtained at Islamabad is the semi-diurnal variation of H component with a morning maximum and afternoon minimum and the phase reversal noticed for Z component variation. Attributed to an early eastward current this is, usually, observed for stations close to the Sq focus current system.