Disturbance of the Earth’s Magnetosphere by High-Speed Solar Wind during Solar Cycle 24: Cross-Variability of MCEF and IMF-Bz and Assessment of Transmitted Power Using Wang’s Eint Parameter
In this article, we analyse the response of the magnetospheric convection electric field (MCEF) and quantify the power transfer to the magnetosphere when it is disturbed by fast solar winds. Our dataset of 1-hour resolution solar winds and sunspots covers eleven years of OMNI and Silso data. We use the dynamic energy coupling function of Wang et al. (2014) to quantify the energy transfer during the different solar phases. We also use the relationship from Wu and Lei (1981), which we consider to be one of the best correlation formulas linking MCEF intensity and the solar electric field, to better estimate the MCEF response and its correlation with IMF-Bz. The study of the cross-variability of MCEF and IMF-Bz intensity shows that, regardless of the solar phase, the two fields evolve in opposition phase with very satisfactory correlations for each phase of solar cycle 24: ？0.97 for the solar minimum and maximum phases, ？0.99 for the ascending phase, ？0.98 for the descending phase, and ？0.98 regardless of the solar phase. It also appears that at any time of day, magnetic effects are ten to twenty times more prevalent in energy transfer phenomena between the magnetosphere and High-Speed Solar Wind than electrical effects. The power transmitted to the inner magnetosphere is minimal at the minimum phase (19 GW) and maximal during the descending phase (1096 GW). The power transmitted during the ascending phase (696 GW) is about three times that transmitted during the solar maximum (216 GW). Regardless of the solar phase, the power transmitted to the inner magnetosphere is about 507 GW.
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