Solar wind driving of magnetospheric ULF waves: Field line resonances driven by dynamic pressure fluctuations

TL;DR

This study uses global MHD simulations to demonstrate that solar wind dynamic pressure fluctuations can directly drive magnetospheric ULF waves, specifically field line resonances, with results matching observational features.

Contribution

The paper provides the first numerical evidence that upstream solar wind pressure fluctuations can generate and explain observed ULF field line resonances in the magnetosphere.

Findings

Monochromatic pressure fluctuations induce localized FLRs matching local eigenfrequencies.

Continuum pressure fluctuations produce a spectrum of FLRs across the dayside.

Simulated FLRs exhibit phase reversals and polarization changes consistent with observations.

Abstract

Several observational studies suggest that solar wind dynamic pressure fluctuations can drive magnetospheric ultra-low frequency (ULF) waves on the dayside. To investigate this causal relationship, we present results from Lyon-Fedder-Mobarry (LFM) global, three-dimensional magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) simulations of the solar wind-magnetosphere interaction. These simulations are driven with synthetic solar wind input conditions, where idealized ULF dynamic pressure fluctuations are embedded in the upstream solar wind. In three of the simulations, a monochromatic, sinusoidal ULF oscillation is introduced into the solar wind dynamic pressure time series. In the fourth simulation, a continuum of ULF fluctuations over the 0-50 mHz frequency band is introduced into the solar wind dynamic pressure time series. In this numerical experiment, the idealized solar wind input conditions allow us to study only the effect of a fluctuating solar wind dynamic pressure, while holding all of the other solar wind driving parameters constant. We show that the monochromatic solar wind dynamic pressure fluctuations drive toroidal mode field line resonances (FLRs) on the dayside, at locations where the upstream driving frequency matches a local field line eigenfrequency. In addition, we show that the continuum of upstream solar wind dynamic pressure fluctuations drives a continuous spectrum of toroidal mode FLRs on the dayside. The characteristics of the simulated FLRs agree well with FLR observations, including a phase reversal radially across a peak in wave power, a change in the sense of polarization across the noon meridian, and a net flux of energy into the ionosphere.