STATISTICAL CHARACTERISTICS OF THE GEOPHYSICAL FIELDS DISTURBED BY WEATHER FRONTS

Abstract

The Earth (internal spheres) — atmosphere — ionosphere — magnetosphere (EAIM) formation is a single integrated system with direct and reverse, positive and negative coupling, as well as with their combination. The high-energy sources of natural and anthropogenic origins activate coupling between the components of the EAIM. The effects that the sources of various physi- cal nature have on the EAIM system have been studied quite well, while the influence of the weather fronts and other powerful atmospheric sources on the EAIM system and its components has been studied only partly. The scientific objective of this study is to conduct a statistical analysis of variations in the basic parameters of the geophysical fields that accompany the movement of atmospheric fronts. The histograms have been constructed that show the atmospheric pressure difference, atmospheric tem- perature difference, duration of the action of the atmospheric front, and the rate of change in the pressure and temperature, as well as the histograms showing the distribution of variations in the atmospheric electric field, the atmospheric current density, and in the magnetic field. The analysis undertaken has shown that these parameters exhibit variations within a broad range of values. The mean values of these parameters are estimated to be 145 Pa, 6 °C, 70 min, 2.4 Pa/min, 0.23 °C/min, 3.2 kV/m, 63 nA/m2, and 20 nT, respectively. The analysis of the scatter diagrams shows that the correlation between the variation in physi- cal parameters is almost always absent. This means that a single governing parameter along the path of the atmospheric front does not exi st. A simplified analytical relation has been derived to estimate the perturbation in the electric field strength caused by the atmospheric front, which yields ~6–60 kV/m values that increase by an order of magnitude during thunderstorms. Under disturbed conditions, the atmospheric current density is shown to increase from 10 –12 A/m2 to 10–11—10–10 A/m 2. The fol- lowing three mechanisms of an increase in the magnetic induction under the influence of the atmospheric front are considered: the disturbances of the external current density, electromagnetic induction, and the magnetic effect of turbulence. All these mechanisms yield the value of the effect less than ~1 nT. Only the magnetic effect of the ionosphere can explain an increase of 10—70 nT in the magnetic field variations. The energetics of the pressure, temperature, electric, and magnetic fields has been estimated to be (~10 16—10 17 J, ~1013—1014 W), (~1018—1019 J, 1015—1016 W), (~109—1011 J, ~106—108 W), (~1010 — 10 11 J, 107—108 W), respectively. The following channels have been validated through which the components of the EAIM sys- tem couple under the action of atmospheric fronts: atmospheric pressure differences, ionospheric electron density differences, the generation of infrasound and gravity waves, the generation of electromagnetic waves by lightning flashes, and the perturba- tions in the global electric circuit.