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East–West Asymmetry in Interplanetary-Scintillation-Level Variation Associated with Solar-Wind Disturbances

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Abstract

Interplanetary-scintillation (IPS) observations provide useful information on large-scale solar-wind disturbances, such as interplanetary coronal mass ejections (ICMEs) and stream interaction regions (SIRs), which impact the Earth and drive space weather. In the present study, we derived the \(G_{\mathrm{ave}}\)-index, which represents daily variations in the density-fluctuation level of the inner heliosphere, based on IPS observations at the Institute for Space-Earth Environmental Research of Nagoya University between 1997 and 2019, and investigated the response of \(G_{\mathrm{ave}}\) to ICME and SIR events. A clear difference was observed in the temporal profile of \(G_{\mathrm{ave}}\) obtained from the superposed-epoch analysis between ICME and SIR events. The \(G_{\mathrm{ave}}\)-values for the east and west sides of the sky plane for ICME events increased simultaneously and peaked at the ICME start time, which is consistent with the analysis of ICMEs directed toward the Earth. In contrast, the analysis of SIR events showed an asymmetric response between eastern and western \(G_{\mathrm{ave}}\), with a distinct increase in \(G_{\mathrm{ave}}\) observed on the west side after the SIR start time and higher \(G_{\mathrm{ave}}\)-values observed on the east side before the start time. These findings were explained by the effect of the spiral-shaped structure of the SIR. Significant positive correlations were found between \(G_{\mathrm{ave}}\) and solar-wind density and speed, which also showed east–west asymmetry. These phenomena were ascribed to the effect of SIR events, while the occurrence of peak correlations between \(G_{\mathrm{ave}}\) and density at zero delay time for Cycle 23 was ascribed to the effect of ICMEs. The difference in correlations between Cycles 23 and 24 was ascribed to the weakening of activity in Cycle 24. The occurrence of a correlation peak for a positive delay time suggests that eastern and western \(G_{\mathrm{ave}}\) data are useful for predicting the arrival of the solar wind with increased density and speed, respectively, although the correlation magnitudes were weak.

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Data Availability

IPS data are publicly available on the ISEE web site (stsw1.isee.nagoya-u.ac.jp/vlist). OMNI data are publicly available from the OMNIWeb service (omniweb.gsfc.nasa.gov/). The ICME and SIR lists were obtained from izw1.caltech.edu/ACE/ASC/DATA/level3/icmetable2.html and agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1029/2018JA026396, respectively. The IPS-indices used in this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.

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Acknowledgments

IPS observations were conducted under the solar-wind program at the Institute for Space-Earth Environmental Research (ISEE) of Nagoya University. We acknowledge the use of the OMNIWeb service and OMNI data of the NASA/GSFC Space Physics Data Facility.

Funding

This research was partially supported by the JSPS KAKENHI Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C) (21K03640).

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  1. Institute for Space-Earth Environmental Research, Nagoya University, Nagoya, Japan

    Munetoshi Tokumaru, Miho Nagai, Ken’ichi Fujiki & Kazumasa Iwai

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  1. Munetoshi Tokumaru
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  2. Miho Nagai
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M. Tokumaru wrote the main manuscript text and prepared all figures. M. Nagai made the analysis under the lead of M. Tokumaru. K. Fujiki and K. Iwai discussed the results. All authors reviewed the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Munetoshi Tokumaru.

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Tokumaru, M., Nagai, M., Fujiki, K. et al. East–West Asymmetry in Interplanetary-Scintillation-Level Variation Associated with Solar-Wind Disturbances. Sol Phys 298, 127 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11207-023-02220-8

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