MEM analysis of geomagnetic field variations over Narssarssuaq

Abstract

Maximum entropy spectral analysis (MESA) has been applied to 24 series of hourly daily data and only one daily mean series for the horizontal (H) and vertical (Z) components of the geomagnetic field for the year 1983 as observed at Narssarssuaq, Greenland (71.2°N, 36.7°E) (gm coordinate). The method has isolated some prominent medium frequency signal components. The maximum peaks for H are at 06 hr (0.174 cycles per day (cpd), 3.2 × 104 db) and 08 hr (0.09 cpd, 3.5 × 104 db). Similarly, the maximum peak in Z is observed at 04 hr (0.114 cpd. 5.7 × 104 db). The spectral results for the daily-mean data indicate penods are greater than two days, with 178.5 days (nearly semiannual) being common to both H and Z. Other harmonics have been found for all the series of H and Z components which are mainly caused by the "Effective Period", i.e., the period produced by the combined effect of the sunspot numbers and the sun's rotation period. Such frequencies correspond very well with those found in the geomagnetic indices Ap, Cp and AE. This suggests that the disturbance transient variations are caused by viscous interaction of the solar energies emanating from sunspot regions with the outermost magnetospheric boundary which, in turn, influences the magnetosphere-ionosphere coupling and produces the medium intensity long-duration continuous auroral activities (MILDCAAs) over high latitude regions. Thus, the higher latitude geomagnetic activities are nothing but the "effective period driven MILDCAAs" having a recurrence tendency of 27/n, where n is an integer.