Time variation of global geomagnetic Sq field in 1964 and 1980

Abstract

Equivalent current systems of the geomagnetic solar quiet daily variation field (Sq) were estimated from the geomagnetic hourly values of the worldwide-distributed observatories at each UT on every day in 1964 and 1980. Seasonal and UT variations of the external current vortex were obtained by averaging through each month and UT. The well-known feature that the vortex centre in the winter hemisphere is situated on the afternoon side of that in the summer hemisphere was re-confirmed for both years. As for the solar activity dependence, the intensity in 1980 (solar maximum) was about twice as large as that in 1964 (solar minimum). Next, the day-to-day variation of the vortex was examined using the obtained current systems. The effects of the UT variation were removed by subtracting the averaged value of each UT for the geomagnetically quiet days of the month. In March 1980, it was found that the intensity varies with a period of about 10–15 days and the phase is advanced to earlier UT or to the east side of the globe. The intensities in the two hemispheres vary out-of-phase with each other.