BURST GEOMAGNETIC PULSATIONS AS INDICATORS OF SUBSTORM EXPANSION ONSETS
DURING SUPERSTORMS
Abstract
We report on the dynamics of field-aligned currents (FACs), broadband
geomagnetic pulsations, and airglow obtained from the Irkutsk (IRK),
Mondy (MND), and Borok (BOX) midlatitude geomagnetic observatories and
the Tory (TOR) optical Observatory during superstorm substorms. For the
first time, using the short duration, ∆t < 0.5 min,
high-frequency component of the burst pulsations (Pi1B), we determined
the substorm double expansion phase (EP) onsets <5 min apart,
which is hardly possible by means of the low frequency (periods of 2–5
min) Psc/PiB pulsations. We argue that the observed burst pulsations are
the result of prompt changes in the solar wind dynamic pressure and/or
the current circuit related to the westward electrojet. Each pulsed
source can excite short bursts of broadband electromagnetic modes of the
ionospheric Alfvén resonator in the range of short-period pulsations
with a periodic resonance structure of the spectrum characteristic of
the observed Pi1B/Psc pulsations