EUV irradiance monitoring and forecasting of strong and extreme solar
events from polar cap observations of TEC
Abstract
The F-region above 270 km is sunlit at all local times and seasons at
latitudes higher than 75 degrees in the polar cap. This gives a direct
indication of the effect of solar EUV activity at the dayside of the
Earth. GNSS slant-TEC measurements covering the local time sector from
9:00 to 15:00 LT reveal primarily the changes in the solar EUV
irradiance. The main error source in the TEC observations here
originates primarily from polar cap patches moving towards the night
sector and varying plasma decay rates. Applying a running one-hour
average filters out most of the changes caused by polar cap patches. In
this study, observations from the polar cap GNSS station in Thule,
Greenland, (at a latitude of 76.5 degrees) have been used to identify
and forecast enhanced solar EUV activity. The results have been compared
with measurements from the SORCE satellite in the frequency range from
100 to 120 nm. The monitored enhanced TEC-values and derived solar
irradiances (mostly due to flares and CMEs) occurred minutes after they
were observed at the sun, which shows the strong forecast capability of
technique. Most of the observed phenomena, which propagated towards
Earth, impacted a few days later the magnetosphere-ionosphere system. We
studied a 4-year data set (2012 - 2015) of slant-TEC observations
derived from the Thule GNSS station and compared the data sets with
observations from the SORCE satellite of solar EUV emissions. The
statistical correlation coefficient between the two data set became 0.7.
Both data sets identified clearly the 27-day variations in the solar
spectral irradiance for wavelengths in the EUV spectrum (with amplitudes
of 10-15 TECU). The polar cap EUV index showed also higher mean-TEC
variability near the equinoxes and in summer-time. During summer, the
F-region cross-field plasma diffusion rates are increased when an
underlying conductive E-layer is present. During the winter, the
insulating E-layer slows the F-layer plasma decay rate, thereby allowing
F-layer structures to survive significantly longer.