Correlation of solar energetic protons and polar cap absorption

Abstract

This study shows the results of a model of polar cap absorption events (PCAs) using solar energetic proton flux as an input. The proton data are recorded by the Charged Particle Measurement Experiment (CPME) on board the IMP 8 satellite and are collected by the Applied Physics Laboratory at Johns Hopkins University. The IMP 8 satellite orbits the Earth at distances between 30 and 35 Earth radii, which places it in the solar energetic particle environment throughout most of its orbit. It has been shown in previous studies that these solar energetic particles have direct and immediate access to the polar atmosphere [Reid, 1970]. Our model shows that the majority of the ionization resulting from the influx of solar energetic protons occurs in the altitude range from ∼ 50–90 km. Excess ionization at these altitudes causes enhanced absorption of cosmic HF radio waves. The levels of absorption used for comparison in this study were measured directly by the riometer at South Pole station, Antarctica. The results show a very strong correlation between the incident proton flux and measured path‐integrated cosmic HF radio noise absorption for significant events, involving absorptions greater than 1.0 dB. For absorption levels lower than this it is obvious that other phenomena dominate. For HF radio waves the primary contributors to PCA are protons with energies near 20 MeV. This study extends the correlated observations of interplanetary particles and PCA throughout a 9‐year period. The close quantitative agreement between the measured and calculated values of absorption supports the validity of the assumptions and suppositions made by this model. The data also suggest a method by which the path‐integrated cosmic noise absorption may be used to probe the E and D layers of the ionosphere to determine the effective ion‐electron recombination coefficients within these regions.