POLAR CAP INDEX VERSUS POLAR CAP POTENTIAL VARIATIONS AS A SUBJECT OF THE SOLAR WIND-MAGNETOSPHERE INTERACTIONS

• Main Authors: L. G. Bankov, A. K. Vassileva
• Other Authors: The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Subjects: Polar Cap Index; Ionosphere; Magnetosphere; Solar Wind; North Pole
• Online Access: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.526.3347; http://www.space.bas.bg/astro/ses2005/a5.pdf

Polar Cap Index (PCI) had been suggested as an opportunity to estimate geomagnetic activity level from a single ground based magnetometer measurements close to the magnetic pole. It was shown that PCI is an approximate manifestation of the convection electric field at high latitudes under assumption that magnetic disturbances are mainly due to the Hall currents. In the present paper, cross polar cap potential (Φpc) data from 549 North pole passes around spring equinox 1998, taken from Special Sensor-Ions, Electrons and Scintillation (SSIES) instrument on DMSP-F13 satellite, under Defense Meteorological Satellite Program (DMSP) are used. For the same period, Thule North Pole PCI data were taken in conjunction with SSIES polar cap potential (PCP) data under various IMF conditions as observed from Advanced Composition Explorer (ACE) satellite. It was found relatively good correlation of about R=0.88 between SSIES Φpc and Thule PCI data within the whole period of observation. While the satellite observations of PCP are an integral characteristic during almost 20min at high latitude part of the orbit, we suggest that PCI could be used under various purposes when higher time resolution is needed.