Properties of post-shock solar wind deduced from geomagnetic indices responses after sudden impulses

TL;DR

This study analyzes geomagnetic responses to interplanetary shocks to estimate post-shock solar wind properties, developing an inversion model for IMF orientation and reconnection E-field with high accuracy.

Contribution

It introduces a novel inversion model for post-shock IMF orientation and E-field based on geomagnetic indices responses, validated with high accuracy.

Findings

SYMH index remains high after northward IMF shocks

AL index change is small for northward IMF shocks

Inversion model achieves 88.24% accuracy for IMF orientation

Abstract

Interplanetary (IP) shock plays a key role in causing the global dynamic changes of the geospace environment. For the perspective of Solar-Terrestrial relationship, it will be of great importance to estimate the properties of post-shock solar wind simply and accurately. Motivated by this, we performed a statistical analysis of IP shocks during 1998-2008, focusing on the significantly different responses of two well-used geomagnetic indices (SYMH and AL) to the passive of two types of IP shocks. For the IP shocks with northward IMF (91 cases), the SYMH index keeps on the high level after the sudden impulses (SI) for a long time. Meanwhile, the change of AL index is relative small, with an mean value of only -29 nT. However, for the IP shocks with southward IMF (92 cases), the SYMH index suddenly decreases at a certain rate after SI, and the change of AL index is much significant, of -316 nT. Furthermore, the change rate of SYMH index after SI is found to be linearly correlated with the post-shock reconnection E-field (E$_{KL}$). Based on these facts, an inversion model of post-shock IMF orientation and E$_{KL}$ is developed. The model validity is also confirmed by studying 68 IP shocks in the period of 2009-2013. The inversion accuracy of IMF orientation is 88.24%, and the inversion efficiency of E$_{KL}$ is as high as 78%.