Seasonal features of geomagnetic activity: a study on the solar activity dependence

Abstract

Seasonal features of geomagnetic activity and their solar-wind–interplanetary drivers are studied using more than five solar cycles of geomagnetic activity and solar wind observations. This study involves a total of 1296 geomagnetic storms of varying intensity identified using the Dst index from January 1963 to December 2019, a total of 75 863 substorms identified from the SuperMAG AL/SML index from January 1976 to December 2019 and a total of 145 high-intensity long-duration continuous auroral electrojet (AE) activity (HILDCAA) events identified using the AE index from January 1975 to December 2017. The occurrence rates of the substorms and geomagnetic storms, including moderate (-50nT≥Dst>-100nT) and intense (-100nT≥Dst>-250nT) storms, exhibit a significant semi-annual variation (periodicity ∼6 months), while the super storms (Dst≤-250 nT) and HILDCAAs do not exhibit any clear seasonal feature. The geomagnetic activity indices Dst and ap exhibit a semi-annual variation, while AE exhibits an annual variation (periodicity ∼1 year). The annual and semi-annual variations are attributed to the annual variation of the solar wind speed Vsw and the semi-annual variation of the coupling function VBs (where V = Vsw, and Bs is the southward component of the interplanetary magnetic field), respectively. We present a detailed analysis of the annual and semi-annual variations and their dependencies on the solar activity cycles separated as the odd, even, weak and strong solar cycles.