The effect of damping on geomagnetic pulsation amplitude and phase at ground observatories
We present some results from a model of forced oscillations of the magnetosphere. The purpose of this work is to examine the effects and consequences of damping on geomagnetic pulsations as observed on the ground. The aim of the current work is to quantify the amount of damping applicable to geomagnetic pulsation waveforms. Ionospheric conductivities vary with latitude and time of day and this variation will effect the damping of geomagnetic pulsations. The variations in ionospheric conductivities are taken into account to predict the changes in amplitude and phase of geomagnetic pulsations over an extended latitudinal array of ground observatories. Three situations are modelled where the damping factor γ/ωn, which is related to the amplitude loss per cycle, is different: (i) γ/ωn approximately equal to 0.01, this corresponds to the ionospheric Joule damping of Newton et al. (1978); (ii) λ/ωn equal to 0.1, this value is consistent with the empirically determined day-time damping factors from the observed latitude-dependent transient decays of the pulsation single effect events discussed by Siebert (1964). The value of 0.1 as the damping factor is taken as typical of day-time conditions and its effect on amplitude and phase for continuous pulsations is considered; and (iii) λ/ωn is latitude-dependent; three different levels of damping are used appropriate for the night-time conditions associated with the auroral electrojet, plasmatrough and plasmasphere.
The results from the model suggest that observationally determined damping factors are greater than those computed from ionospheric Joule damping alone. The model also illustrates the broadening of the latitudinal resonance width with increasing damping and the reducing of the phase change across resonance to less than 180°. The model also successfully reproduces features of pulsation single effect events and Pi2 pulsations.