A large-scale view of Space Technology 5 magnetometer response to solar wind drivers

TL;DR

This paper reprocessed and validated Space Technology 5 magnetometer data, revealing how magnetic perturbations respond to solar wind drivers and establishing methods for future space magnetometer data comparisons.

Contribution

It introduces a new reprocessing method for ST5 magnetometer data, including coordinate transformation, gain correction, and validation against DMSP data.

Findings

Magnetic perturbations track solar wind and geomagnetic activity.

Unexpected strong dayside perturbations during a solstice oscillation.

Periods of calm associated with slow solar wind and northward IMF.

Abstract

In this data report we discuss reprocessing of the Space Technology 5 (ST5) magnetometer database for inclusion in NASA's Coordinated Data Analysis Web (CDAWeb) virtual observatory. The mission consisted of three spacecraft flying in elliptical orbits, from 27 March to 27 June 2006. Reprocessing includes (1) transforming the data into the Modified Apex Coordinate System for projection to a common reference altitude of 110km, (2) correcting gain jumps, and (3) validating the results. We display the averaged magnetic perturbations as a keogram, which allows direct comparison of the full-mission data with the solar wind values and geomagnetic indices.With the data referenced to a common altitude, we find the following: (1) Magnetic perturbations that track the passage of corotating interaction regions and high-speed solar wind; (2) unexpectedly strong dayside perturbations during a solstice magnetospheric sawtooth oscillation interval characterized by a radial interplanetary magnetic field (IMF) component that may have enhanced the accompanying modest southward IMF; and (3) intervals of reduced magnetic perturbations or "calms," associated with periods of slow solar wind, interspersed among variable-length episodic enhancements. These calms aremost evidentwhen the IMF is northward or projectswith a northward component onto the geomagnetic dipole. The reprocessed ST5 data are in very good agreement with magnetic perturbations from the Defense Meteorological Satellite Program (DMSP) spacecraft, which we also map to 110km. We briefly discuss the methods used to remap the ST5 data and the means of validating the results against DMSP. Our methods form the basis for future intermission comparisons of space-based magnetometer data.