Synchronous globally observable ultrashort-period pulses

Abstract

We have studied the properties of impulsive geomagnetic disturbances, which are observed synchronously at the network of induction magnetometers of the Institute of Solar-Terrestrial Physics (ISTP SB RAS) and Canadian stations of the CARISMA project [Mann, et al., 2008]. A feature of the pulses we detected is that their frequency range (f~5–30 Hz) lies at the junction of the ranges of two known classes of electromagnetic oscillations: ultra-low-frequency (ULF) oscillations (f<5–10 Hz), or geomagnetic pulsations, and extra-low frequency (ELF) oscillations (f~30–300 Hz); therefore, the 5–30 Hz range is poorly studied. The work is of undoubted interest for physics of processes in the magnetosphere–ionosphere–atmosphere system. Morphological analysis of the pulses detected has been carried out using data from ISTP stations. As a result, we obtained statistical characteristics of the pulses, plotted their dynamic spectra, and determined a number of unusual properties that distinguish them, on the one hand, from geomagnetic pulsations of the pulsed type (irregular pulsations of the Pi1B type), and, on the other hand, from higher frequency ELF and VLF signals (atmospherics, whistlers, etc.). On the basis of the results, we have made an assumption that a source of the pulses under study can be electrical sprites caused by powerful thunderstorms at middle and low latitudes. Using the results obtained by Wang, et al. in 2019 on spatial and temporal fixation of sprites in North China, we have confirmed that ultra-short-period pulses occur following the emergence of sprites. Thunderstorm activity, both local and global, is considered to be one of the main sources of excitation of the ionospheric Alfvén resonator (IAR), which plays an important role in coupling the ionosphere and the magnetosphere. The pulsed oscillations of interest may be one of the agents through which the energy of thunderstorms is transferred to IAR, thereby including the atmosphere in the system considered.