Magnetic field variability detected by

Interplanetary Scintillation over the long

term
1 2 1
Harsha A Tanti · Susanta K Bisoi · Abhirup Datta LinkedIn Profile:

1
Department of Astronomy, Astrophysics, and Space Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology
Indore, India
2
Department of Physics and Astronomy, National Institute of Technology Rourkela, India

Introduction
Study of solar photospheric magnetic fields over the cycle of 21-25 variations shows a declining trend. This long-term decline in solar
photospheric magnetic fields expected to manifests in solar wind density fluctuations[1]. As the solar wind plasma drags the photosphere’s
magnetic field lines from corona into the heliosphere. Due to this relation of solar wind and solar photospheric magnetic field, temporal
study of solar wind turbulence is important. The temporal behaviour of the solar wind turbulence level can be probed using interplanetary
scintillation (IPS) technique [2]. By studying the IPS signatures, recent studies show that the solar magnetic fields have gradually declined
during cycles 22 and 23 [3]. In this work, analysis of declination of the solar magnetic field during solar cycle 24–25 using the IPS technique
is attempted.
Solar Magnetic Field IPS Analysis and Findings
In order to analyse the temporal variations in scintillation in-
dex (m), observations by a ground-based radio IPS telescope, such
as the ISEE in Nagoya, Japan, at 327 MHz are used. Scintillation
index is used in order to measure the solar wind turbulence. The
IPS is dependant on the heliocentric distance and the angular size
of the radio source.
To study temporal variations of
m, we removed the angular source
size dependency and the heliocen-
tric distance between the Sun and
LOS dependency in a similar man-
ner described in [3].

st
The 1 panel of the image shows the polar magnetic field (Bpolar )
variations for 37 years which is estimated using the NSO/KP magne-
nd rd th
tograms. The 2 , 3 , and 4 panel shows the temporal variations
of the Heliospheric Magnetic Field (BHMF , Solar Flux, and Sun Spot
Number respectively. The red filled dots are the 27-day averaged
valued, the black diamond marker represents the annual mean, the
solid black line shows the 3σ variations over the year, and the solid
gray line marks the solar cycle.
Interplanetary Scintillation
IPS is a diffraction phenomenon wherein coherent electromagnetic
radiation from a distant radio source passes through the turbulent,
refracting solar wind and suffers scattering, resulting in random tem-
poral variations of the signal intensity (scintillation) at the Earth.
IPS assumes a thin-screen approximation for density variations, re-
sulting in scattering and phase variations as signatures. Which trans-
lates to constructive or destructive interference at a distance of the
scattered wave or intensity fluctuations. These fluctuations are pro-
portional to the variations of the electron density of the media.
The IPS phenomenon is shown in Fig-
ure on the left, where E and S is the
Earth - Sun system. Elongation α -
angle between line of sight (LOS) of
radio source and the E-S LOS. Radi-
ally outward flowing solar wind inter-
sects LOS ⊥ at Q.
By normalization, the
scintillation data at each
heliocentric distance (R)
is adjusted to the turn-
over R in order to remove
the distance dependency
[2].
The plot above shows temporal variations of m obtained over the
period 1983–2020. By comparing IPS index, PMF, and HMF; it
is observed that IPS index has signatures of both. Form the plot
above, the scintillation is decreased considerably when compared
with the prediction based on IPS index data from 1995 to 2009.
These low levels of scintillation values implies that there is de-
crease in the turbulence caused by the solar wind which means
there is overall decrease in the mass ejections by the Sun.
Acknowledgements
Authors would like to thank ISEE Japan team for providing the data for this work. H.A.T
would like to thank Prof S. Ananthakrisnan (SPPU) for his valuable suggestions regarding
the subject.
Bibliography
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