Search

Interplanetary coronal mass ejections (ICMEs), characterized by their magnetic flux ropes, could potentially trigger geomagnetic disturbances. They have been attracting extensive investigations for decades. Despite numerous ICME models proposed in the past, few account for the curvature of the flux rope axis. In this study, we use conjunction observations from ACE, STEREO A and B, Juno and Solar Orbiter to analyze the evolution of the rope orientation of ICME flux ropes. Our findings indicate that the orientation of these ropes changes independently of the scale of the ropes or the distance they travel between spacecrafts. Furthermore, we estimate and compare the major radii of these flux ropes, uncovering a diverse range of distributions that do not seem to depend on the flux rope’s width. These results provide fresh insights and constraints for global ICME models, thereby contributing to the advancement of space weather research.

The foreshock located upstream of Earth's bow shock hosts a wide variety of phenomena related to the reflection of solar wind particles from the bow shock and the subsequent formation of ultra-low-frequency (ULF) waves. In this work, we investigate foreshock cavitons, which are transient structures resulting from the non-linear evolution of ULF waves, and spontaneous hot flow anomalies (SHFAs), which are thought to evolve from cavitons as they accumulate suprathermal ions while being carried to the bow shock by the solar wind. Using the global hybrid-Vlasov simulation model Vlasiator, we have conducted a statistical study in which we track the motion of individual cavitons and SHFAs in order to examine their properties and evolution. In our simulation run where the interplanetary magnetic field (IMF) is directed at a sunward–southward angle of 45∘, continuous formation of cavitons is found up to ∼11 Earth radii (RE) from the bow shock (along the IMF direction), and caviton-to-SHFA evolution takes place within ∼2 RE from the shock. A third of the cavitons in our run evolve into SHFAs, and we find a comparable amount of SHFAs forming independently near the bow shock. We compare the properties of cavitons and SHFAs to prior spacecraft observations and simulations, finding good agreement. We also investigate the variation of the properties as a function of position in the foreshock, showing that transients close to the bow shock are associated with larger depletions in the plasma density and magnetic field magnitude, along with larger increases in the plasma temperature and the level of bulk flow deflection. Our measurements of the propagation velocities of cavitons and SHFAs agree with earlier studies, showing that the transients propagate sunward in the solar wind rest frame. We show that SHFAs have a greater solar wind rest frame propagation speed than cavitons, which is related to an increase in the magnetosonic speed near the bow shock.

Magnetosheath jets are regions of high dynamic pressure, which can traverse from the bow shock towards the magnetopause. Recent modelling efforts, limited to a single jet and a single set of upstream conditions, have provided the first estimations about how the jet parameters behave as a function of position within the magnetosheath. Here we expand the earlier results by doing the first statistical investigation of the jet dimensions and parameters as a function of their lifetime within the magnetosheath. To verify the simulation behaviour, we first identify jets from Magnetosphere Multiscale (MMS) spacecraft data (6142 in total) and confirm the Vlasiator jet general behaviour using statistics of 924 simulated individual jets. We find that the jets in the simulation are in quantitative agreement with the observations, confirming earlier findings related to jets using Vlasiator. The jet density, dynamic pressure, and magnetic field intensity show a sharp jump at the bow shock, which decreases towards the magnetopause. The jets appear compressive and cooler than the magnetosheath at the bow shock, while during their propagation towards the magnetopause they thermalise. Further, the shape of the jets flatten as they progress through the magnetosheath. They are able to maintain their flow velocity and direction within the magnetosheath flow, and they end up preferentially to the side of the magnetosheath behind the quasi-parallel shock. Finally, we find that Vlasiator jets during low solar wind Alfvén Mach number MA are shorter in duration, smaller in their extent, and weaker in terms of dynamic pressure and magnetic field intensity as compared to the jets during high MA.

The foreshock is a region of space upstream of the Earth's bow shock extending along the interplanetary magnetic field (IMF). It is permeated by shock-reflected ions and electrons, low-frequency waves, and various plasma transients. We investigate the extent of the He2+ foreshock using Vlasiator, a global hybrid-Vlasov simulation. We perform the first numerical global survey of the helium foreshock and interpret some historical foreshock observations in a global context. The foreshock edge is populated by both proton and helium field-aligned beams, with the proton foreshock extending slightly further into the solar wind than the helium foreshock and both extending well beyond the ultra-low frequency (ULF) wave foreshock. We compare our simulation results with Magnetosphere Multiscale (MMS) Hot Plasma Composition Analyzer (HPCA) measurements, showing how the gradient of suprathermal ion densities at the foreshock crossing can vary between events. Our analysis suggests that the IMF cone angle and the associated shock obliquity gradient can play a role in explaining this differing behaviour. We also investigate wave–ion interactions with wavelet analysis and show that the dynamics and heating of He2+ must result from proton-driven ULF waves. Enhancements in ion agyrotropy are found in relation to, for example, the ion foreshock boundary, the ULF foreshock boundary, and specular reflection of ions at the bow shock. We show that specular reflection can describe many of the foreshock ion velocity distribution function (VDF) enhancements. Wave–wave interactions deep in the foreshock cause de-coherence of wavefronts, allowing He2+ to be scattered less than protons.

We use a global hybrid-Vlasov simulation for the magnetosphere, Vlasiator, to investigate magnetosheath high-speed jets. Unlike many other hybrid-kinetic simulations, Vlasiator includes an unscaled geomagnetic dipole, indicating that the simulation spatial and temporal dimensions can be given in SI units without scaling. Thus, for the first time, this allows investigating the magnetosheath jet properties and comparing them directly with the observed jets within the Earth's magnetosheath. In the run shown in this paper, the interplanetary magnetic field (IMF) cone angle is 30°, and a foreshock develops upstream of the quasi-parallel magnetosheath. We visually detect a structure with high dynamic pressure propagating from the bow shock through the magnetosheath. The structure is confirmed as a jet using three different criteria, which have been adopted in previous observational studies. We compare these criteria against the simulation results. We find that the magnetosheath jet is an elongated structure extending earthward from the bow shock by ∼ 2.6 RE, while its size perpendicular to the direction of propagation is ∼ 0.5 RE. We also investigate the jet evolution and find that the jet originates due to the interaction of the bow shock with a high-dynamic-pressure structure that reproduces observational features associated with a short, large-amplitude magnetic structure (SLAMS). The simulation shows that magnetosheath jets can develop also under steady IMF, as inferred by observational studies. To our knowledge, this paper therefore shows the first global kinetic simulation of a magnetosheath jet, which is in accordance with three observational jet criteria and is caused by a SLAMS advecting towards the bow shock.

In this paper we present the first identification of foreshock cavitons and the formation of spontaneous hot flow anomalies (SHFAs) with the Vlasiator global magnetospheric hybrid-Vlasov simulation code. In agreement with previous studies we show that cavitons evolve into SHFAs. In the presented run, this occurs very near the bow shock. We report on SHFAs surviving the shock crossing into the downstream region and show that the interaction of SHFAs with the bow shock can lead to the formation of a magnetosheath cavity, previously identified in observations and simulations. We report on the first identification of long-term local weakening and erosion of the bow shock, associated with a region of increased foreshock SHFA and caviton formation, and repeated shock crossings by them. We show that SHFAs are linked to an increase in suprathermal particle pitch-angle spreads. The realistic length scales in our simulation allow us to present a statistical study of global caviton and SHFA size distributions, and their comparable size distributions support the theory that SHFAs are formed from cavitons. Virtual spacecraft observations are shown to be in good agreement with observational studies.

We use Magnetosphere Multiscale (MMS) mission data to investigate a small number of magnetosheath jets, which are localized and transient increases in dynamic pressure, typically due to a combined increase in plasma velocity and density. For two approximately hour-long intervals in November, 2015 we found six jets, which are of two distinct types. (a) Two of the jets are associated with the magnetic field discontinuities at the boundary between the quasi-parallel and quasi-perpendicular magnetosheath. Straddling the boundary, the leading part of these jets contains an ion population similar to the quasi-parallel magnetosheath, while the trailing part contains ion populations similar to the quasi-perpendicular magnetosheath. Both populations are, however, cooler than the surrounding ion populations. These two jets also have clear increases in plasma density and magnetic field strength, correlated with a velocity increase. (b) Three of the jets are found embedded within the quasi-parallel magnetosheath. They contain ion populations similar to the surrounding quasi-parallel magnetosheath, but with a lower temperature. Out of these three jets, two have a simple structure. For these two jets, the increases in density and magnetic field strength are correlated with the dynamic pressure increases. The other jet has a more complicated structure, and no clear correlations between density, magnetic field strength and dynamic pressure. This jet has likely interacted with the magnetosphere, and contains ions similar to the jets inside the quasi-parallel magnetosheath, but shows signs of adiabatic heating. All jets are associated with emissions of whistler, lower hybrid, and broadband electrostatic waves, as well as approximately 10 s period electromagnetic waves with a compressional component. The latter have a Poynting flux of up to 40 µW m−2 and may be energetically important for the evolution of the jets, depending on the wave excitation mechanism. Only one of the jets is likely to have modified the surrounding magnetic field into a stretched configuration, as has recently been reported in other studies. None of the jets are associated with clear signatures of either magnetic or thermal pressure gradient forces acting on them. The different properties of the two types also point to different generation mechanisms, which are discussed here. Their different properties and origins suggest that the two types of jets need to be separated in future statistical and simulation studies.

In this work we perform a statistical analysis of 92 foreshock cavitons observed with the Cluster spacecraft 1 during the period 2001–2006. We analyze time intervals during which the spacecraft was located in the Earth's foreshock with durations longer than 10 min. Together these amount to ~ 50 days. The cavitons are transient structures in the Earth's foreshock. Their main signatures in the data include simultaneous depletions of the magnetic field intensity and plasma density, which are surrounded by a rim of enhanced values of these two quantities. Cavitons form due to nonlinear interaction of transverse and compressive ultra-low frequency (ULF) waves and are therefore always surrounded by intense compressive ULF fluctuations. They are carried by the solar wind towards the bow shock. This work represents the first systematic study of a large sample of foreshock cavitons. We find that cavitons appear for a wide range of solar wind and interplanetary magnetic field conditions and are therefore a common feature upstream of Earth's quasi-parallel bow shock with an average occurrence rate of ~ 2 events per day. We also discuss their observational properties in the context of other known upstream phenomena and show that the cavitons are a distinct structure in the foreshock.

Interplanetary transients with particular signatures different from the normal solar wind have been observed behind interplanetary shocks and also without shocks. In this paper we have selected four well-known transient interplanetary signatures, namely: magnetic clouds, helium enhancements and bidirectional electron and ion fluxes, found in the solar wind behind shocks, and undertaken a correlative study between them and the corresponding solar observations. We found that although commonly different signatures appear in a single interplanetary transient event, they are not necessarily simultaneous, that is, they may belong to different plasma regions within the ejecta, which suggests that they may be generated by complex processes involving the ejection of plasma from different solar regions. We also found that more than 90% of these signatures correspond to cases when an Hα flare and/or the eruption of a filament occurred near solar central meridian between 1 and 4 days before the observation of the disturbance at 1 AU, the highest association being with flares taking place between 2 and 3 days before. The majority of the Hα flares were also accompanied by soft X-ray events. We also studied the longitudinal distribution of the associated solar events and found that between 80% and 90% of the interplanetary ejecta were associated with solar events within a longitudinal band of ±30° from the solar central meridian. An east-west asymmetry in the associated solar events seems to exist for some of the signatures. We also look for coronal holes adjacent to the site of the explosive event and find that they were present almost in every case.Key words. Interplanetary physics · Interplanetary shocks · Solar wind plasma · Solar physics · Flares and mass ejections