Abstract
Impacts of solar flare vary at different parts of the lower ionosphere depending on it’s proximity to the direct exposure of incoming solar radiation. The quantitative analysis of this phenomena can be attributed to ‘solar zenith angle (\(\chi (t)\))’ profile over ionosphere. We numerically solve the ‘electron continuity equation’ to obtain the lower ionospheric electron density profile (\(N_{e}(t)\)). The electron production rate (\(q(t)\)) is governed by the (i) X-ray profile (\(\phi (t)\)) of the flare, (ii) \(\chi (t)\)-values during the flare occurrence etc. For analyzing the X-ray profile during flares, we use the GOES-15 satellite observations. Since we’re working on electron continuity equation based simplified ionospheric model, we confined our analysis for comparatively stable mid-latitude ionosphere only. We choose three flares each from C, M and X-classes for \(N_{e}(t)\)-profile computation. We observe that temporal \(N_{e}(t)\)-profiles differ when computed for lower ionosphere over different discrete latitudes. Further, we compute the spatial \(N_{e}(t)\)-profile across mid-latitude at the time when \(\phi (t)=\phi _{max}\). Now we assume that, these flares repeat themselves every day of a year (\(DoY\)) at the same time of a day and we compute \(N_{e}(t)\)-profiles for each day. We found a seasonal effect on \(N_{e}(t)\)-profile due to solar flare. Further, we investigate the response time delay (\(\Delta t\)) of the lower ionosphere, which is the time difference between incidence of X-ray and the respective change in \(N_{e}(t)\)-profiles during solar flares. Strong seasonal effects on \(N_{e}(t)\)-profile and \(\Delta t\) are the unique results of this work.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Balachandra Swamy, A.C.: Astrophys. Space Sci. 185, 153 (1991)
Balan, N., Liu, L., Le, H.: Earth Planet. Phys. 2(4), 257 (2018)
Basak, T., Chakrabarti, S.K.: Astrophys. Space Sci. 348, 315 (2013)
Berdermann, J., Kriegel, M., Banys, D., Heymann, F., Hoque, M.M., Wilken, V., Borries, C., Hebelbarth, A., Jakowski, N.: Space Weather 16, 1604 (2018)
Carter, B.A., Yizengaw, E., Pradipta, R., Retterer, J.M., Groves, K., Valladares, C., Caton, R., Bridgwood, C., Norman, R., Zhang, K.: J. Geophys. Res. Space Phys. 121(1), 894 (2016)
Chakrabarti, S.K., Sasmal, S., Chakraborty, S., Basak, T., Tucker, R.L.: Adv. Space Res. 62(3), 651 (2018)
Gavrilov, B.G., Ermak, V.M., Poklad, Y.V., Ryakhovskii, I.A.: Geomagn. Aeron. 59(5), 587 (2019)
Gledhill, J.A.: Radio Sci. 21(3), 399 (1986)
Grubor, D.P., Sulic, D.M., Zigman, V.: Ann. Geophys. 26, 1731 (2008)
Kolarski, A., Grubor, D.: Adv. Space Res. 53(11), 1595 (2014)
Kumar, A., Kumar, S.: Earth Planets Space 70, 29 (2018)
Le, H., Liu, L., Chan, B., Lei, J., Yue, X., Wan, W.: J. Atmos. Sol.-Terr. Phys. 69, 1587 (2007)
Le, H., Liu, L., Chen, Y., Wan, W.: J. Geophys. Res. 118(1), 576 (2012)
McRae, W.M., Thomson, N.R.: J. Atmos. Sol.-Terr. Phys. 66, 77 (2004)
Mitra, A.P.: Ionospheric Effects of Solar Flares. Reidel, Dordrecht (1974)
Mitra, S.K.: The Upper Atmosphere. The Asiatic Society, Calcutta (1992)
Nina, A., Cadez, V., Sulic, D., Sreckovic, V., Zigman, V.: Nucl. Instrum. Methods Phys. Res., Sect. B 279, 106 (2011)
Nina, A., Cadez, V., Bajcetic, J., Mitrovic, S.T., Popovic, L.C.: Sol. Phys. 293, 64 (2018)
Pacini, A.A., Raulin, J.P.: J. Geophys. Res. 111, A09301 (2006)
Palit, S., Basak, T., Pal, S., Chakrabarti, S.K.: Astrophys. Space Sci. 356, 19 (2015)
Palit, S., Ray, S., Chakrabarti, S.K.: Astrophys. Space Sci. 361, 151 (2016)
Palit, S., Raulin, J.P., Szpigel, S.: J. Geophys. Res. Space Phys. 123, 10224 (2018)
Pandey, U., Singh, B., Singh, O.P.: Astrophys. Space Sci. 357, 35 (2015)
Rowe, J.N., Ferraro, A.J., Lee, H.S., Kreplin, R.W., Mitra, A.P.: J. Atmos. Terr. Phys. 31, 1609 (1970)
Schmitter, E.D.: Ann. Geophys. 29, 1287 (2011)
Selvakumaran, R., Maurya, A.K., Gokani, S.A., Veenadhari, B., Kumar, S., Venkatesham, K., Phanikumar, D.V., Singh, A.K., Siingh, D., Singh, R.: J. Atmos. Sol.-Terr. Phys. 123, 102 (2015)
Sharma, D.K., Rai, J., Israil, M., Subrahmanyam, P., Chopra, P., Garg, S.C.: Ann. Geophys. 22, 2047 (2004)
Singh, A.K., Singh, A.K., Singh, R., Singh, R.P.: Astrophys. Space Sci. 350, 1 (2014)
Thomson, N.R., Clilverd, M.A.: J. Geophys. Res. 63, 1729 (2001)
Todoroki, Y., Maekawa, S., Yamauchi, T., Horie, T., Hayakawa, M.: Geophys. Res. Lett. 34, L03103 (2007)
Valnicek, B., Ranzinger, P.: Bull. Astron. Inst. Czechoslov. 23, 318 (1972)
Vontrat-Reberac, A., Fontaine, D., Blelly, P., Galand, M.: J. Geophys. Res. Space Phys. 106(A12), 28857 (2001)
Whitten, R.C., Poppoff, I.G.: J. Geophys. Res. 66, 2779 (1961)
Whitten, R.C., Poppoff, I.G., Edmonds, R.S., Berning, W.W.: J. Geophys. Res. 70, 1737 (1965)
Zigman, V., Grubour, D., Sulic, D.: J. Atmos. Terr. Phys. 69, 775 (2007)
Acknowledgements
Authors acknowledge NOAA’s National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI) for using solar X-ray data and International Reference Ionosphere (IRI) (an international project sponsored by the Committee on Space Research (COSPAR) and the International Union of Radio Science (URSI)) for using electron density data.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Additional information
Publisher’s Note
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Chakraborty, S., Basak, T. Numerical analysis of electron density and response time delay during solar flares in mid-latitudinal lower ionosphere. Astrophys Space Sci 365, 184 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10509-020-03903-5
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10509-020-03903-5