The Response of the Coupled Magnetosphere-Ionosphere System to the 15 August 2015 Solar Wind Dynamic Pressure Enhancement

Abstract

The rapid increases in solar wind dynamic pressure, termed sudden impulses (SIs), compress Earth’s dayside magnetosphere and strongly perturb the coupled Magnetosphere-Ionosphere (M-I) system. The compression of the dayside magnetosphere launches magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) waves, which propagate down to the ionosphere, changing the Auroral Field Aligned Currents (FACs), and into nightside magnetosphere. The global response to the compression front sweeping through the coupled system is not yet fully understood due to the sparseness of the measurements, especially those with the necessary time resolution to resolve the propagating disturbances. The newly commissioned Magnetospheric MultiScale (MMS) spacecraft enables us to observe and analyze the characteristics of the propagating disturbances launched by the SI owing to the unprecedented high time resolution of the instruments on board this mission. On 15 August 2015 at 7.44 UT, Advanced Composition Explorer measured a sudden increase in the solar wind dynamic pressure from 1.11 nPa to 2.55 nPa. We use MMS and the other magnetospheric spacecraft in the equatorial magnetosphere to identify the signatures of magnetosphere response to this SI event and examine the interaction of the propagating disturbances with the M-I system. With the increased time resolution of Active Magnetosphere and Polar Electrodynamics Response Experiment (AMPERE), the FAC pattern and intensity change due to SI can also be studied in more depth. We further use measurements from ground based magnetometer stations to increase our tracking capability for the disturbances in the ionosphere and to improve our understanding of their propagation characteristics. This is the first step in a comprehensive multi-point observation and a global magnetohydrodynamic simulation based investigation of the response of the coupled M-I system to sudden impulses.