What Drove the Carrington Event? An Analysis of Currents and Geospace Regions

Author:

Thomas Dean1ORCID,Weigel Robert S.1ORCID,Pulkkinen Antti2ORCID,Schuck Peter W.2,Welling Daniel T.3ORCID,Ngwira Chigomezyo M.4ORCID

Affiliation:

1. Space Weather Lab Department of Physics and Astronomy George Mason University Fairfax VA USA

2. Heliophysics Science Division NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Greenbelt MD USA

3. Climate and Space Sciences Engineering University of Michigan Ann Arbor MI USA

4. Department of Physics Catholic University of America Washington DC USA

Abstract

AbstractThe 1859 Carrington event is the most intense geomagnetic storm in recorded history, and the literature provides numerous explanations for what drove the negative H perturbation on the Earth. There is debate on what dominated the event. Our analysis shows a combination of causes of similar orders of magnitude. Previous analyses generally rely upon the observed H perturbation at Colaba, India; historic newspaper reports; and empirical models. We expand the analysis using two Space Weather Modeling Framework simulations to examine what drove the event. We compute contributions from currents and geospace regions to the northward B field on Earth's surface, BN. We examine magnetospheric currents parallel and perpendicular to the local B field, ionospheric currents, and gap region field–aligned currents (FACs). We also evaluate contributions from the magnetosheath, near–Earth, and neutral sheet regions. A combination of currents and geospace regions significantly contribute to BN on the Earth's surface, changing as the storm evolves. At storm onset, magnetospheric currents and gap–region FACs dominate in the equatorial region. At auroral latitudes, gap–region FACs and ionospheric currents are the largest contributors. At storm peak, azimuthal magnetospheric currents and gap–region FACs dominate at equatorial latitudes. Gap–region FACs and ionospheric currents dominate in the auroral zone, down to mid‐latitudes. Both the magnetosheath and FACs contribute at storm peak, but are less significant than that from the near–Earth ring current. During recovery, the near–Earth ring current is the largest contributor at equatorial latitudes. Ionospheric currents and gap–region FACs dominate in the auroral zone.

Publisher

American Geophysical Union (AGU)

Reference39 articles.

Cited by 1 articles. 订阅此论文施引文献 订阅此论文施引文献,注册后可以免费订阅5篇论文的施引文献,订阅后可以查看论文全部施引文献

1. Challenging Ring‐Current Models of the Carrington Storm;Journal of Geophysical Research: Space Physics;2024-09

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