Signatures of wedgelets over Fennoscandia during the St Patrick s Day Storm 2015Show others and affiliations
2023 (English)In: Journal of Space Weather and Space Climate, E-ISSN 2115-7251, Vol. 13, article id 19
Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]
During the long main phase of the St Patrick's Day storm on March 17, 2015, we found three separate enhancements of the westward electrojet. These enhancements are observed in the ionospheric equivalent currents computed using geomagnetic data over Fennoscandia. Using data from the IMAGE magnetometer network, we identified localised field-aligned current (FAC) systems superimposed on the pre-existing ionospheric current system. We suggest that these localised current systems are wedgelets and that they can potentially contribute to a larger-scale structure of a substorm current wedge (SCW). Each wedgelet is associated with a negative BX spike. Each spike is recorded at a higher latitude than the former one and all three are very localised over Fennoscandia. The first spike occurred at 17:34 UT and was observed at Lycksele, R rvik and Nurmij rvi, the second spike was recorded at 17:41 UT and located at Lycksele and R rvik, whereas the last spike occurred at 17:47 UT and was observed at Kevo and Abisko. Simultaneous optical auroral data and electron injections at the geosynchronous orbit indicate that one or more substorms took place in the polar ionosphere at the time of the wedgelets. This study demonstrates the occurrence of small and short-lived structures such as wedgelets at different locations over a short time scale, 15 min in this case.
Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
EDP Sciences, 2023. Vol. 13, article id 19
Keywords [en]
Ionospheric equivalent currents, St Patrick s Day storm, Substorm, Wedgelets, Westward electrojet
National Category
Fusion, Plasma and Space Physics
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:umu:diva-212096DOI: 10.1051/swsc/2023018ISI: 001010354000001Scopus ID: 2-s2.0-85163322164OAI: oai:DiVA.org:umu-212096DiVA, id: diva2:1782795
Funder
Swedish National Space Board, 10077/15Swedish National Space Board, 81/17Swedish Research Council, 2018-036232023-07-172023-07-172023-11-15Bibliographically approved