Balasis G, Papadimitriou C, Boutsi A Z
1 Institute for Astronomy , Astrophysics , Space Applications and Remote Sensing , National Observatory of Athens , Athens , Greece.
2 Space Applications & Research Consultancy - SPARC , Athens , Greece.
Philos Trans A Math Phys Eng Sci. 2019 Jul 1;377(2148):20180098. doi: 10.1098/rsta.2018.0098.
The ionospheric response to solar and interplanetary disturbances has been the subject of intense study for several decades. For 5 years now, the European Space Agency's Swarm fleet of satellites surveys the Earth's topside ionosphere, measuring magnetic and electric fields at low-Earth orbit with unprecedented detail. Herein, we study in situ the ionospheric response in terms of the occurrence of plasma instabilities based on 2 years of Swarm observations. Plasma instabilities are an important element of space weather because they include irregularities like the equatorial spread F events, which are responsible for the disruption of radio communications. Moreover, we focus on three out of the four most intense geospace magnetic storms of solar cycle 24 that occurred in 2015, including the St Patrick's Day event, which is the strongest magnetic storm of the present solar cycle. We examine the associated ionospheric response at Swarm altitudes through the estimation of a Swarm Dst-like index. The newly proposed Swarm derived Dst index may be suitable for space weather applications. This article is part of the theme issue 'Solar eruptions and their space weather impact'.
几十年来，电离层对太阳和行星际扰动的响应一直是深入研究的课题。5年来，欧洲航天局的“蜂群”卫星编队一直在对地球高层电离层进行探测，以前所未有的详细程度测量近地轨道的磁场和电场。在此，我们基于“蜂群”两年的观测数据，对等离子体不稳定性发生情况方面的电离层响应进行实地研究。等离子体不稳定性是空间天气的一个重要因素，因为它们包括诸如赤道扩展F事件等不规则现象，这些现象会导致无线电通信中断。此外，我们聚焦于2015年发生的太阳活动周期24中四次最强烈的地球空间磁暴中的三次，包括圣帕特里克节事件，它是当前太阳活动周期中最强的磁暴。我们通过估算类似“蜂群”Dst指数来研究“蜂群”高度处相关的电离层响应。新提出的源自“蜂群”的Dst指数可能适用于空间天气应用。本文是主题为“太阳爆发及其对空间天气的影响”的一部分。
