Vol 57, No 2 (2017)

The ring current is conventionally considered responsible for the shift of the boundary of solar proton penetration into the inner Earth’s magnetosphere during magnetic storms. The cases of a boundary shift were observed in some works on the dark side before the onset of a magnetic storm, i.e., at positive values of the Dst index. In this work, this type of shift of the penetration boundary is considered in detail with two storms as examples. It is shown that the corresponding distortion of the magnetosphere configuration is induced by an increase in the solar wind pressure during the initial phase of a magnetic storm. The current induced in this case on the magnetopause is closed by a current in the equator plane, which changes the configuration of the dark side of the inner magnetosphere, weakens the magnetic field, and allows solar protons to penetrate the inner magnetosphere. The significant difference in the positions of the penetration boundary and the boundary found from models of the magnetosphere magnetic field can be explained by insufficient consideration of closing currents.

The problem of point injection of charged particles into a magnetic dipole field was considered. Analytical expressions were obtained by the Störmer method for regions of allowed pulses of charged particles at random points of a dipole field at a set position of the point source of particles. It was found that, for a fixed location of the studied point, there was a specific structure of the coordinate space in the form of a set of seven regions, where the injector location in each region corresponded to a definite form of an allowed pulse region at the studied point. It was shown that the allowed region boundaries in four of the mentioned regions were surfaces of conic section revolution.

The paper presents the results of numerical photochemical simulations of the impact of the most powerful solar proton flares during the 23rd solar cycle on the ozonosphere in the polar regions of the Earth. A global 3D photochemical model, CHARM, developed at Central Aerological Observatory (CAO) was used in the simulations. The model introduces an additional source of nitrogen atoms and OH radicals. These components are formed due to the ionization effect of solar protons in the Earth’s atmosphere. The ionization rate was determined from data on proton fluxes measured by GOES satellites. The production rate of additional NO_x and HО_x molecules per ion pair was based on published theoretical studies. It is shown that the most intense flares in the 23rd solar cycle (2000, 2001, and 2003) destroyed ozone in the mesosphere to a great extent (sometimes completely, for example, during the July 14, 2000, event). It is found that the response of ozone to solar proton events follows a seasonal pattern. For the first time, the long-term effect of solar proton events is identified; it is approximately one year.

The 22-year variation in the frequency of aurora occurrence is found through an analysis of data of the Russian network of meteorological stations from 1837–1909. This variation is obtained in a form of asymmetry between even and odd solar cycles. We found that the nature of the 22-year variation depends on the latitude of the observation station. The annual number N of midlatitude auroras (geomagnetic latitudes Φ < 56°) for about three years at the end of the descending part of solar cycles is larger for the even cycles than for the odd. For high-latitude auroras (Φ ≥ 56°), the pattern is opposite: at the descending part of the solar cycle, N is larger in the odd cycles than in the even. For the high-latitude sector, asymmetry of the polar sun cycles (the period between two magnetic field reversals) is clearly observed: an increased N is observed during the whole odd polar cycle (which starts approximately at the maximum of the odd Schwabe cycle) as compared to the even cycle. Extrapolation of the modern picture of alternation of the sign of the global solar magnetic field back in time leads to the conclusion that the most geoeffective polar cycles in cycles 8–14 were those in which the polar magnetic field in the northen hemisphere was negative.

A theoretical-numerical description of zonal flow generation in the turbulent ionosphere by controlled inhomogeneous background wind is given. The generalized Charney–Obukhov equation, which describes the nonlinear interaction of five different-scale modes (primary modes, relatively short-wave ultra-low frequency (ULF) magnetized Rossby waves (MRWs) (pumping waves), two satellites of these MRWs, long-wave zonal mode, and large-scale background shear flows (inhomogeneous wind)) is used. New features of energy transfer from relatively small-scale waves and the background shear flow into that of largescale zonal flows and nonlinear self-organization of the five-wave collective activity in the ionospheric medium are identified based on the numerical solution of the corresponding system of equations for perturbation amplitudes (generalized eigenvalue problems). It is shown that if there is the background shear flow with a moderate amplitude growth the modulation instability increment and intensifies the zonal flow generation, while a very strong shear flow significantly reduces the modulation instability increment and can even suppress the generation process.

The problem of systematic overestimation (20–50%) of the retrieved ozone concentrations in the altitude range of 60–80 km in the TIMED–SABER satellite experiment in the daytime has been solved. The reason for overestimation is the neglect of the electronic vibrational kinetics of photolysis products of ozone and molecular oxygen O₂(b¹Σ_g⁺, ν) and O₂(a¹Δ_g, ν). The IR emission band of O₂(a¹Δ_g, ν = 0) at 1.27 μm can be correctly used in remote sensing in order to obtain the ozone altitude profile in the altitude range of 50–88 km only with the use of a complete model of electronic vibrational kinetics of O₂ and O₃ photolysis products (YM2011) in the Earth’s mesosphere and lower thermosphere. Alternative ozone tracers have been considered, and an optimum tracer in the altitude range of 50–100 km such as O₂(b¹Σ_g⁺, ν = 1) molecule emissions has been proposed.