Storm time polar cap expansion: interplanetary magnetic field clock angle dependence

[摘要] It is well known that the polar cap, delineated by the open–closed field line boundary (OCB),responds to changes in the interplanetary magnetic field (IMF).In general, the boundary moves equatorward when the IMF turns southward and contractspoleward when the IMF turns northward. However,observations of the OCB are spotty and limited in local time,making more detailed studies of its IMF dependence difficult.Here, we simulate five solar storm periods with the coupled model consisting of the OpenGeospace General Circulation Model (OpenGGCM) coupled with the Coupled Thermosphere IonosphereModel (CTIM) and the Rice Convection Model (RCM),i.e., the OpenGGCM-CTIM-RCM, to estimate the location and dynamics of the OCB.For these events, polar cap boundary location observations are also obtained from Defense MeteorologicalSatellite Program (DMSP) precipitation spectrograms and compared with the model output.There is a large scatter in the DMSP observations and in the model output.Although the model does not predict the OCB with high fidelity for every observation,it does reproduce the general trend as a function of IMF clock angle.On average, the model overestimates the latitude of the open–closed field line boundaryby 1.61 ∘ . Additional analysis of the simulated polar cap boundary dynamics acrossall local times shows that the MLT of the largest polar cap expansion closely correlateswith the IMF clock angle, that the strongest correlation occurs when the IMF is southward, thatduring strong southward IMF the polar cap shifts sunward, and that the polar cap rapidlycontracts at all local times when the IMF turns northward.

[学科分类] 化学工程（综合）