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www.ann-geophys.net/26/2383/2008/
© European Geosciences Union 2008
What is the best method to calculate the solar wind propagation delay?
1Yerevan State University, Armenia
2Alexandru Ioan Cuza, University Iasi, Romania
3University of Bergen, Norway
*also at: Max-Planck Institute for Solar Systems, Germany
Abstract. We present a statistical study of propagation times of solar wind discontinuities between Advanced Composition Explorer (ACE) spacecraft orbiting the L1 libration point and the Cluster quartet of spacecraft near the Earth's magnetopause. The propagation times for almost 200 events are compared with the predicted times from four different models. The simplest model assumes a constant convective motion of solar wind disturbances along the Sun-Earth line, whereas more sophisticated models take the orientation of the discontinuity as well as the real positions of the solar wind monitor and target into account. The results show that taking orientation and real position of the solar wind monitor and target into account gives a more precise time delay estimation in most cases. In particular, we show that recent modifications to the minimum variance technique can improve the estimation of propagation times of solar wind discontinuities.
Full Article (PDF, 1596 KB)
Citation: Mailyan, B., Munteanu, C., and Haaland, S.: What is the best method to calculate the solar wind propagation delay?, Ann. Geophys., 26, 2383-2394, 2008. Bibtex EndNote Reference Manager
