Ionospheric Ion Composition Changes During Geomagnetic Storms

Abstract

A geomagnetic storm originates from high-energy solar events, e.g. a coronal mass ejection, causing massive solar winds leading to complex disturbances and changes to the near-Earth space environment. This master's thesis is a study of the changes to the ionospheric ion composition during geomagnetic storms. Four selected geomagnetic storm events have been investigated using the data produced by the newly developed Swarm Langmuir probe Ion drift, Density and Effective Mass (SLIDEM) product. The thesis' hypothesis is that the increase in energy from the geomagnetic event will lead to observable changes in the ion composition at Swarm altitudes. Observations of the Effective Ion Mass reveal a tendency of a greater fraction of heavy ions during storm time. However, the four storms unveil diverse observations giving rise to an interesting discussion.