Authors
Martin Fillion (CIRES,NOAA/NCEI), Arnaud Chulliat (CIRES,NOAA/NCEI), Patrick Alken (CIRES,NOAA/NCEI), M. Kruglyakov (Department of Physics, University of Otago, New Zealand), A. Kuvshinov (Institute of Geophysics, ETH Zèurich, Switzerland)
Abstract
Data-based modeling of the near-Earth magnetospheric field is challenging
due to the highly dynamical nature of magnetospheric currents and to the sparse
available data. One important characteristic of this field is the so-called local
time asymmetry, which can be clearly observed during the main phase of geomagnetic
storms. Modeling this asymmetry requires a dataset with a good
spatial coverage at a high time resolution. The network of ground magnetic
observatories provides the only magnetic data that meet these criteria. In this
study, we present a data-based model of the near-Earth magnetic field produced
by electric currents in the inner magnetosphere. Using vector magnetic
data from ground observatories, we take advantage of the spatiotemporal coverage
of the full dataset to model the local time asymmetries with a one-hour
timestep. The magnetospheric field is modeled with spherical harmonics in the
Solar Magnetic coordinate frame and its external and induced parts are separated
using a time-domain approach. The model is validated by comparing it
to satellite data from Swarm, Oersted and CHAMP. The resulting model allows
to study the local time asymmetries for all geomagnetic conditions over a
period of 24 years. In particular, storm-time asymmetries can be observed for
numerous storm events. The asymmetry during quiet times is subtle and is discussed
within the scope of the separation of the ionospheric and magnetospheric
fields in magnetic data, which remains a major challenge in geomagnetism. It
is believed that this model can provide constraints for the study of geomagnetic
storms and substorms.