effects of abrupt variations of solar wind dynamic pressure on the high-latitude ionosphere突然变化的影响太阳风动态高纬度地区电离层的压力.pdfVIP

Hindawi Publishing Corporation International Journal of Geophysics Volume 2011, Article ID 207514, 8 pages doi:10.1155/2011/207514 Research Article Effects of Abrupt Variations of Solar Wind Dynamic Pressure on the High-Latitude Ionosphere Igino Coco,1 Ermanno Amata,1 Maria Federica Marcucci,1 Danila Ambrosino,1 and Simon G. Shepherd2 1 Istituto di Fisica dello Spazio Interplanetario (IFSI), Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica (INAF), Via del Fosso del Cavaliere, 100, 00133 Rome, Italy 2 Thayer School of Engineering at Dartmouth, Dartmouth College, 8000 Cummings Hall, Hanover, NH 03755-8000, USA Correspondence should be addressed to Igino Coco, igino.coco@ifsi-roma.inaf.it Received 16 February 2011; Accepted 8 April 2011 Academic Editor: Lucilla Alfonsi Copyright © 2011 Igino Coco et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. We show the results of a statistical study on the effects in the high-latitude ionosphere of abrupt variations of solar wind dynamic pressure, using Super Dual Auroral Radar Network (SuperDARN) data in both hemispheres. We find that, during periods of quiet ionospheric conditions, the amount of radar backscatter increases when a variation in the dynamic pressure occurs, both positive (increase of the pressure) and negative (decrease of the pressure). We also investigate the behaviour of the Cross-Polar Cap Potential (CPCP) during pressure variations and show preliminary results. 1. Introduction The energy transfer from the solar wind to the mag-