The InterHourly-Variability (IHV) Index of Geomagnetic Activity and its Use in Deriving the Long-term Variation of Solar Wind Speed

TL;DR

This paper introduces the IHV index for long-term geomagnetic activity measurement, correlates it with solar wind parameters, and uses it to reconstruct solar wind speed from 1890 to present.

Contribution

It develops a new long-term geomagnetic activity index (IHV) and demonstrates its use in deriving historical solar wind speed, extending understanding back to the 19th century.

Findings

IHV correlates strongly with midlatitude geomagnetic indices.

Yearly solar wind speed varied from 303 km/s to 545 km/s over 120 years.

The IHV-based solar wind speed estimates agree with independent BV measurements.

Abstract

We describe the derivation of the InterHourly Variability (IHV) index of geomagnetic activity. The IHV-index for a geomagnetic element is mechanically derived from hourly values as the sum of the unsigned differences between adjacent hours over a seven-hour interval centered on local midnight. The index is derived separately for stations in both hemispheres within six longitude sectors using only local night hours. It is intended as a long-term index. Available data allows derivation of the index back well into the 19th century. On a time scale of a 27-day Bartels rotation, IHV averages for stations with corrected geomagnetic latitude less than 55 degrees are strongly correlated with midlatitude range indices. Assuming a constant calibration of the aa-index we find that observed yearly values of aa before the year 1957 are 2.9 nT too small compared to values calculated from IHV using the regression constants based on 1980-2004. We interpret this discrepancy as an indication that the calibration of the aa index is in error before 1957. There is no such problem with the ap index. Rotation averages of IHV are also strongly correlated with solar wind parameters (BV^2). On a time scale of a year combining the IHV-index and the recently-developed Inter-Diurnal Variability (IDV) index (giving B) allows determination of solar wind speed, V, from 1890-present. Over the ~120-year series, the yearly mean solar wind speed varied from a low of 303 km/s in 1902 to a high value of 545 km/s in 2003. The calculated yearly values of the product BV using B and V separately derived from IDV and IHV agree quantitatively with (completely independent) BV derived from the amplitude of the diurnal variation of the H component in the polar caps since 1926 and sporadically beyond.