Welcome to the new version of CaltechAUTHORS. Login is currently restricted to library staff. If you notice any issues, please email coda@library.caltech.edu
Published April 1, 2011 | Published
Journal Article Open

Use of single-component wind speed in Rankine-Hugoniot analysis of interplanetary shocks

Abstract

We have extended and deployed a routine designed to run independently on the Web providing real-time analysis of interplanetary shock observations from L_1. The program accesses real-time magnetic field, solar wind speed, and proton density data from the Advanced Composition Explorer (ACE) spacecraft, searches for interplanetary shocks, analyzes shocks according to the Rankine-Hugoniot (R-H) jump conditions, and provides shock solutions on the Web for space weather applications. Because the ACE real-time data stream contains the wind speed but not the three-component wind velocity, we describe modifications to the R-H analysis that use the scalar wind speed and show successful results for analyses of strong interplanetary shocks at 1 AU. We compare the three-component and one-component solutions and find the greatest disagreement between the two rests in estimations of the shock speed rather than the shock propagation direction. Uncertainties in magnetic quantities such as magnetic compression and shock normal angle relative to the upstream magnetic field show large uncertainties in both analyses when performed using an automated routine whereas analyses of the shock normal alone do not. The automated data point selection scheme, together with the natural variability of the magnetic field, is inferred to be a problem in a few instances for this and other reasons. For a broad range of interplanetary shocks that arrive 30 to 60 min after passing L_1, this method will provide 15 to 45 min of advanced warning prior to the shock's collision with the Earth's magnetopause. The shock, in turn, provides advance warning of the approaching driver gas.

Additional Information

© 2011 American Geophysical Union. Received 28 September 2010; revised 31 January 2011; accepted 3 February 2011; published 1 April 2011. Funding for this work was provided by NASA grants NNG04GMO5G and NAG5‐12492 and Caltech subcontract 44A‐1062037 in support of the ACE/MAG experiment. Support at LANL was provided under the auspices of the U.S. Department of Energy, with financial support from the NASA ACE program. We thank the Solar‐Terrestrial Laboratory at Nagoya University for providing the 210MM magnetic observations and the IMAGE ground‐based magnetometer team for providing data used in this study. V.S.V. was an undergraduate senior at UNH pursuing a chemical engineering major in renewable energy when this work was performed. He is now a graduate student in the Center for Renewable Energy at the University of Delaware. C.J.M. was a visiting undergraduate at UNH at the time this work was completed.

Attached Files

Published - Vorotnikov2011p13445Space_Weather.pdf

Files

Vorotnikov2011p13445Space_Weather.pdf
Files (356.1 kB)
Name Size Download all
md5:a5353e12010bdbc84b6e4bd64c23833a
356.1 kB Preview Download

Additional details

Created:
August 22, 2023
Modified:
October 23, 2023