Explore the vast range of titles available.

We report a rare regime of Earth's magnetosphere interaction with sub‐Alfvénic solar wind in which the windsock‐like magnetosphere transforms into one with Alfvén wings. In the magnetic cloud of a Coronal Mass Ejection (CME) on 24 April 2023, NASA's Magnetospheric Multiscale mission distinguishes the following features: (a) unshocked and accelerated low‐beta CME plasma coming directly against Earth's dayside magnetosphere; (b) dynamical wing filaments representing new channels of magnetic connection between the magnetosphere and foot points of the Sun's erupted flux rope; (c) cold CME ions observed with energized counter‐streaming electrons, evidence of CME plasma captured due to by reconnection between magnetic‐cloud and Alfvén‐wing field lines. The reported measurements advance our knowledge of CME interaction with planetary magnetospheres, and open new opportunities to understand how sub‐Alfvénic plasma flows impact astrophysical bodies such as Mercury, moons of Jupiter, and exoplanets close to their host stars. Plain Language Summary Like supersonically fast fighter jets creating sonic shocks in the air, planet Earth typically moves in the magnetized solar wind at super‐Alfvénic speeds and generates a bow shock. Here we report unprecedented observations of Earth's magnetosphere interacting with a sub‐Alfvénic solar wind brought by an erupted magnetic flux rope from the Sun, called a coronal mass ejection (CME). The terrestrial bow shock disappears, leaving the magnetosphere exposed directly to the cold CME plasma and the strong magnetic field from the Sun's corona. Our results show that the magnetosphere transforms from its typical windsock‐like configuration to having wings that magnetically connect our planet to the Sun. The wings are highways for Earth's plasma to be lost to the Sun, and for the plasma from the foot points of the Sun's erupted flux rope to access Earth's ionosphere. Our work indicates highly dynamic generation and interaction of the wing filaments, shedding new light on how sub‐Alfvénic plasma wind may impact astrophysical bodies in our solar and other stellar systems. Key Points MMS observed a rare regime of magnetosphere interaction with unshocked low‐beta CME plasma Wing filaments represent dynamical channels of magnetic connection between the magnetosphere and foot points of the Sun's erupted flux rope Cold CME ions observed on closed field lines, likely generated by dual‐wing reconnection

Using eighteen years (1995 – 2012) of solar wind plasma and magnetic field data (observed by the Wind spacecraft), solar activity ( e.g. sunspot number: SSN), and the geomagnetic-activity index (Dst), we have identified 168 magnetic clouds (MCs) and 197 magnetic-cloud-like structures (MCLs), and we have made relevant comparisons. The following features are found during seven different periods (TP: total period during 1995 – 2012, P1 and P2: first and second half-period during 1995 – 2003 and 2004 – 2012, Q1 and Q2: quiet periods during 1995 – 1997 and 2007 – 2009, A1 and A2: active periods during 1998 – 2006 and 2010 – 2012). (1) During the total period, the yearly occurrence frequency is 9.3 for MCs and 10.9 for MCLs. (2) In the quiet periods 〈 N MCs 〉 Q1 > 〈 N MCLs 〉 Q1 and 〈 N MCs 〉 Q2 > 〈 N MCLs 〉 Q2 , but in the active periods 〈 N MCs 〉 A1 < 〈 N MCLs 〉 A1 and 〈 N MCs 〉 A2 < 〈 N MCLs 〉 A2 . (3) The minimum Bz ( Bz min ) inside of an MC is well correlated with the intensity of geomagnetic activity, Dst min (minimum Dst found within a storm event) for MCs (with a Pearson correlation coefficient, , and the fitting function is Dst min =0.90+7.78 Bz min ), but Bz min for MCLs is not well correlated with the Dst index ( , and the fitting function is Dst min =−9.40+4.58 Bz min ). (4) MCs play a major role in producing geomagnetic storms: the absolute value of the average Dst min (〈Dst min 〉 MC =−70 nT) for MCs associated geomagnetic storms is twice as strong as that for MCLs (〈Dst min 〉 MCL =−35 nT) because of the difference in the IMF (interplanetary magnetic field) strength. (5) The SSN is uncorrelated with MCs (〈 N MCs 〉 TP , ), but is well associated with MCLs (〈 N MCLs 〉 TP , ). Note that the c.c. for SSN vs. 〈 N MCs 〉 P2 is higher than that for SSN vs. 〈 N MCLs 〉 P2 . (6) Averages of IMF, solar wind speed, and density inside of the MCs are higher than those inside of the MCLs. (7) The average of MC duration (≈ 18.82 hours) is ≈ 20 % longer than the average of MCL duration (≈ 15.69 hours). (8) There are more MCs than MCLs in the quiet solar period and more MCLs than MCs in the active solar period, probably as a result of the interaction between an MC and another significant interplanetary disturbance (including another MC), which could obviously change the character of an MC, but we speculate that some MCLs are no doubt due to other factors such as complex birth conditions at the Sun.

We fitted the parameters of magnetic clouds (MCs) as identified in the Wind spacecraft data from early 2010 to the end of 2012 using the model of Lepping, Jones, and Burlaga ( J. Geophys. Res . 95 , 1195, 1990 ). The interval contains 48 MCs and 39 magnetic cloud-like (MCL) events. This work is a continuation of MC model fittings of the earlier Wind sets, including those in a recent publication, which covers 2007 to 2009. This period (2010 – 2012) mainly covers the maximum portion of Solar Cycle 24. Between the previous and current interval, we document 5.7 years of MCs observations. For this interval, the occurrence frequency of MCs markedly increased in the last third of the time. In addition, over approximately the last six years, the MC type ( i.e. the profile of the magnetic-field direction within an MC, such as North-to-South, South-to-North, all South) dramatically evolved to mainly North-to-South types when compared to earlier years. Furthermore, this evolution of MC type is consistent with global solar magnetic-field changes predicted by Bothmer and Rust ( Coronal Mass Ejections , 139, 1997 ). Model fit parameters for the MCs are listed for 2010 – 2012. For the 5.7 year interval, the observed MCs are found to be slower, weaker in estimated axial magnetic-field intensity, and shorter in duration than those of the earlier 12.3 years, yielding much lower axial magnetic-field fluxes. For about the first half of this 5.7 year period, i.e. up to the end of 2009, there were very few associated MC-driven shock waves (distinctly fewer than the long-term average of about 50 % of MCs). But since 2010, such driven shocks have increased markedly, reflecting similar statistics as the long-term averages. We estimate that 56 % of the total observed MCs have upstream shocks when the full interval of 1995 – 2012 is considered. However, only 28 % of the total number of MCLs have driven shocks over the same period. Some interplanetary shocks during the 2010 – 2012 interval are seen to apparently occur without an obvious MC-driver, probably indicating an encounter with a distant flank of a MC-driven shock. Some of these may be driven by a different kind of structure, however.

Recently, it has been established that interplanetary coronal mass ejections (ICMEs) can dramatically affect both trapped electron fluxes in the outer radiation belt and precipitating electron fluxes lost from the belt into the atmosphere. Precipitating electron fluxes and energies can vary over a range of timescales during these events. These variations depend on the initial energy and location of the electron population and the ICME characteristics and structures. One important factor controlling electron dynamics is the magnetic field orientation within the ejecta that is an integral part of the ICME. In this study, we examine Van Allen Probes (RBSPs) and Polar Orbiting Environmental Satellites (POESs) data to explore trapped and precipitating electron fluxes during two ICMEs. The ejecta in the selected ICMEs have magnetic cloud characteristics that exhibit the opposite sense of the rotation of the north–south magnetic field component (BZ). RBSP data are used to study trapped electron fluxes in situ, while POES data are used for electron fluxes precipitating into the upper atmosphere. The trapped and precipitating electron fluxes are qualitatively analysed to understand their variation in relation to each other and to the magnetic cloud rotation during these events. Inner magnetospheric wave activity was also estimated using RBSP and Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES) data. In each event, the largest changes in the location and magnitude of both the trapped and precipitating electron fluxes occurred during the southward portion of the magnetic cloud. Significant changes also occurred during the end of the sheath and at the sheath–ejecta boundary for the cloud with south to north magnetic field rotation, while the ICME with north to south rotation had significant changes at the end boundary of the cloud. The sense of rotation of BZ and its profile also clearly affects the coherence of the trapped and/or precipitating flux changes, timing of variations with respect to the ICME structures, and flux magnitude of different electron populations. The differing electron responses could therefore imply partly different dominant acceleration mechanisms acting on the outer radiation belt electron populations as a result of opposite magnetic cloud rotation.

This work is a continuation of our previous article (Yermolaev et al. in J. Geophys. Res . 120 , 7094, 2015 ), which describes the average temporal profiles of interplanetary plasma and field parameters in large-scale solar-wind (SW) streams: corotating interaction regions (CIRs), interplanetary coronal mass ejections (ICMEs including both magnetic clouds (MCs) and ejecta), and sheaths as well as interplanetary shocks (ISs). As in the previous article, we use the data of the OMNI database, our catalog of large-scale solar-wind phenomena during 1976 – 2000 (Yermolaev et al. in Cosmic Res. , 47 , 2, 81, 2009 ) and the method of double superposed epoch analysis (Yermolaev et al. in Ann. Geophys ., 28 , 2177, 2010a ). We rescale the duration of all types of structures in such a way that the beginnings and endings for all of them coincide. We present new detailed results comparing pair phenomena: 1) both types of compression regions ( i.e. CIRs vs. sheaths) and 2) both types of ICMEs (MCs vs. ejecta). The obtained data allow us to suggest that the formation of the two types of compression regions responds to the same physical mechanism, regardless of the type of piston (high-speed stream (HSS) or ICME); the differences are connected to the geometry ( i.e. the angle between the speed gradient in front of the piston and the satellite trajectory) and the jumps in speed at the edges of the compression regions. In our opinion, one of the possible reasons behind the observed differences in the parameters in MCs and ejecta is that when ejecta are observed, the satellite passes farther from the nose of the area of ICME than when MCs are observed.

In this study, three methods were used to analyze 17 large-scale local high-temperature regions with durations exceeding 2 h within magnetic clouds (MCs) observed by advanced composition explorer from 1998 to 2008. Results show that five of these large-scale regions may have been caused by flare heating; seven of the regions may have been caused by nonuniform expansion when MCs propagated in the solar-terrestrial space; four large-scale high temperature regions may likely result from combined non-uniform expansion and flare heating; and only one large-scale local high-temperature region was not related to either flare heating nor non-uniform expansion. No evidence indicated that magnetic reconnection occurred or had occurred within the high-temperature regions. Based on our results, we infer that such local high-temperature phenomena within MCs are caused primarily as a result of flare heating and non-uniform expansion, either separately or jointly, and that magnetic reconnection plays only a minor role in the formation of high-temperature regions.

Sudden short-duration decreases in cosmic ray flux, known as Forbush decreases (FDs), are mainly caused by interplanetary disturbances. A generally accepted view is that the first step of an FD is caused by a shock sheath and the second step is due to the magnetic cloud (MC) of the interplanetary coronal mass ejection (ICME). This simplistic picture does not consider several physical aspects, such as whether the complete shock sheath or MC (or only part of these) contributes to the decrease or the effect of internal structure within the shock-sheath region or MC. We present an analysis of 16 large ( ≥ 8 % ) FD events and the associated ICMEs, a majority of which show multiple steps in the FD profile. We propose a reclassification of FD events according to the number of steps observed in their respective profiles and according to the physical origin of these steps. This study determines that 13 out of 16 major events ( ∼ 81 % ) can be explained completely or partially on the basis of the classic FD model. However, it cannot explain all the steps observed in these events. Our analysis clearly indicates that not only broad regions (shock sheath and MC), but also localized structures within the shock sheath and MC have a significant role in influencing the FD profile. The detailed analysis in the present work is expected to contribute toward a better understanding of the relationship between FD and ICME parameters.

The aim of this article is to study the minimum variance analysis (MVA) degeneration problem based on the variance space geometry. We propose a mathematical metric to evaluate the separation of the eigenvalues. In the MVA method, a variance space is obtained geometrically using an ellipsoid where the axes are equal to the square root of the eigenvalues of the covariance matrix. The metric is defined as the product between the geometric flattening of the ellipsoid with respect to the three axes. In this article, we present a statistical analysis applied to the distribution of the eigenvalue ratios and the mathematical metric focussed on the study of several interplanetary coronal mass ejections with and without magnetic clouds (MCs). The results show the non-applicability of the ratio between the intermediate and minimum eigenvalues, as well as that around 90 % of MC events have values in the [ 4.5 , 19.5 ] range for the defined metric. Our metric is compared with others and we show its robustness in indicating the usefulness of the MVA method to identify the axes of MCs.

We need a typical method of directly measuring geomagnetically induced current (GIC) to compare data for estimating a potential risk of power grids caused by GIC. Here, we overview GIC measurement systems that have appeared in published papers, note necessary requirements, report on our equipment, and show several examples of our measurements in substations around Tokyo, Japan. Although they are located at middle latitudes, GICs associated with various geomagnetic disturbances are observed, such as storm sudden commencements (SSCs) or sudden impulses (SIs) caused by interplanetary shocks, geomagnetic storms including a storm caused by abrupt southward turning of strong interplanetary magnetic field (IMF) associated with a magnetic cloud, bay disturbances caused by high-latitude aurora activities, and geomagnetic variation caused by a solar flare called the solar flare effect (SFE). All these results suggest that GIC at middle latitudes is sensitive to the magnetospheric current (the magnetopause current, the ring current, and the field-aligned current) and also the ionospheric current.

We give the results of parameter fitting of the magnetic clouds (MCs) observed by the Wind spacecraft for the three-year period 2013 to the end of 2015 (called the “Present” period) using the MC model of Lepping, Jones, and Burlaga ( J. Geophys. Res. 95 , 11957, 1990 ). The Present period is almost coincident with the solar maximum of the sunspot number, which has a broad peak starting in about 2012 and extending to almost 2015. There were 49 MCs identified in the Present period. The modeling gives MC quantities such as size, axial attitude, field handedness, axial magnetic-field strength, center time, and closest-approach vector. Derived quantities are also estimated, such as axial magnetic flux, axial current density, and total axial current. Quality estimates are assigned representing excellent, fair/good, and poor. We provide error estimates on the specific fit parameters for the individual MCs, where the poor cases are excluded. Model-fitting results that are based on the Present period are compared to the results of the full Wind mission from 1995 to the end of 2015 (Long-term period), and compared to the results of two other recent studies that encompassed the periods 2007 – 2009 and 2010 – 2012, inclusive. We see that during the Present period, the MCs are, on average, slightly slower, slightly weaker in axial magnetic field (by 8.7%), and larger in diameter (by 6.5%) than those in the Long-term period. However, in most respects, the MCs in the Present period are significantly closer in characteristics to those of the Long-term period than to those of the two recent three-year periods. However, the rate of occurrence of MCs for the Long-term period is 10.3 year − 1 , whereas this rate for the Present period is 16.3 year − 1 , similar to that of the period 2010 – 2012. Hence, the MC occurrence rate has increased appreciably in the last six years. MC Type (N–S, S–N, All N, All S, etc. ) is assigned to each MC; there is an inordinately large percentage of All S, by about a factor of two compared to that of the Long-term period, indicating many strongly tipped MCs. In 2005, there was a distinct change in variability and average value (viewed at 1 / 2 year averages) of the duration, MC speed, axial magnetic field strength, axial magnetic flux, and total current to lower values. In the Present period, upstream shocks occur for 43% of the 49 cases; for comparison, the Long-term rate is 56%.