Solar flare effects in the Earth’s magnetosphere

Abstract

The Earth’s magnetosphere is the outermost layer of the geospace system deflecting energetic charged particles from the Sun and solar wind. The solar wind has major impacts on the Earth’s magnetosphere, but it is unclear whether the same holds for solar flares—a sudden eruption of electromagnetic radiation on the Sun. Here we use a recently developed whole geospace model combined with observational data from the 6 September 2017 X9.3 solar flare event to reveal solar flare effects on magnetospheric dynamics and on the electrodynamic coupling between the magnetosphere and its adjacent ionosphere, the ionized part of Earth’s upper atmosphere. We observe a rapid and large increase in flare-induced photoionization of the polar ionospheric E-region at altitudes between 90 km and 150 km. This reduces the efficiency of mechanical energy conversion in the dayside solar wind–magnetosphere interaction, resulting in less Joule heating of the Earth’s upper atmosphere, a reconfiguration of magnetosphere convection, as well as changes in dayside and nightside auroral precipitation. This work thus demonstrates that solar flare effects extend throughout the geospace via electrodynamic coupling, and are not limited—as previously believed—to the atmospheric region where radiation energy is absorbed1. The solar wind affects the magnetosphere, but whether this holds true for solar flares was unclear. By combining geospace modelling with observations, solar flares are shown to influence the dynamics of the magnetosphere and its ionosphere coupling.