Analyzing Magnetospheric Conditions During a Sudden Stratospheric Warming Event in January 2013

Major sudden stratospheric warmings (SSWs) refer to significant changes in temperature and wind direction within the stratosphere. These events are caused by the enhanced planetary wave forcing. The strong westward forcing disrupts the polar vortex, reverses the zonal wind and causes adiabatic warming in the polar winter stratosphere. Such major events occur over 50% of the northern hemisphere winters. Because the atmospheric column is interconnected, we see effects near the surface from the SSW event including colder arctic air moving further southward into the midlatitudes. We have a good understanding of SSW effects on the stratosphere and troposphere but its effects on the magnetosphere and upper ionosphere are not well known. It is important to understand these effects in order to have better modeling capabilities of the entire atmospheric system, understand effects on upper atmospheric processes as well as ensure no satellite communications are affected. We intend to determine what effects caused by a particular SSW event in January 2013 are quantifiable in this upper atmospheric region. As a first step to answering this question, we used the WACCM-X model to study the entire atmospheric profile from the surface to the upper atmosphere. We ran the model twice: a base case run without the SSW and a control run with the SSW. Then, we compared Pedersen conductance, Hall conductance, oxygen concentration and electron column density while focusing on a particular region over North America. By focusing on differences between both runs, we determined that the magnetosphere is likely to be affected by sudden stratospheric warmings. However, more model simulations and statistical analyses are needed to quantify the exact effects on the magnetosphere from SSW events.