Sudden impulse observations in the dayside magnetosphere by THEMIS

Abstract

AbstractWe present a study of the magnetospheric response to interplanetary shocks. We show eight events with simultaneous observations of sudden impulses in the dayside magnetosphere and interplanetary shocks in the solar wind. The spacecraft measurements in the equatorial plane, even those very close to the Earth, can be interpreted in terms of the vortices predicted by previous studies employing global MHD models. In fact, these vortices are velocity oscillations with the properties of Alfvén waves. The amplitude and frequency of the oscillations depend on radial distance from the Earth. The amplitude of the velocity perturbations decreases with increase of the density and magnetic field magnitude, but the velocity amplitude shows no dependence on magnitude of the solar wind dynamic pressure change attending the interplanetary shocks. The oscillations are observed both in the outer magnetosphere and the plasmasphere, but they become less sinusoidal near the plasmapause, i.e., in the region with a large‐density gradient. The amplitude of the magnetic field enhancement in the sudden impulses also depends on the radial distance. The MHD simulations successfully predict the amplitudes of magnetic field increase and the first cycles of the velocity oscillations in these events.