Solar and Geomagnetic Activity Impact on Occurrence and Spatial Size of Cold and Hot Polar Cap Patches
Duan Zhang, Qinghe Zhang, Yu‐Zhang Ma, Kjellmar Oksavik, L. R. Lyons, Yongliang Zhang, N. Balan, Zan‐Yang Xing, Jing Liu, M. R. Hairston, Xiu‐Teng Wang
Abstract
Abstract This paper is a statistical survey of polar cap patches in relation to solar and geomagnetic activity. Ten thousand six hundred eighty‐eight patches have been identified from in situ plasma observations of the Defense Meteorological Satellite Program F16 satellite for 14 years (2005–2018). These patches are divided into two groups: (a) cold patches, which consist of dense but cold plasma; and (b) hot patches, which consist of dense but hot plasma. The statistical results indicate that (a) the occurrence of cold patches is clearly dependent on solar and geomagnetic activity, but hot patches don not show such dependence; (b) both cold and hot patches preferably appear in the winter season; (c) the spatial size of both cold and hot patches decreases (increases) with solar (geomagnetic) activity; (d) the spatial size of cold patches appears larger than that of hot patches under similar solar and geomagnetic activity.