Professor DU Aimin and his team research the solar wind energy input during prolonged, intense northward interplanetary magnetic fields (IMFs).

They derive a new solar wind–magnetosphere coupling function during northward IMFs. This concept is defining one for energy release(ER)/substorm energy storage. Their scenario indicates that the rate of solar wind energy injection into the magnetotail/magnetosphere/ionosphere for storage determines the potential form of energy release into the magnetosphere/ionosphere. This may be more important to understand solar wind–magnetosphere coupling than the dissipation mechanism itself (in understanding the form of the release). The concept of short-term energy storage is also applied for the solar case. It is argued that it may be necessary to identify the rate of energy input into solar magnetic loop systems to be able to predict the occurrence of solar flares.

Figure 1. The Wideband Imaging Camera (WIC) images from IMAGE satellite during ER. (Image by DU)

Du et al. Solar Wind Energy Input during Prolonged, Intense Northward InterplanetaryMagnetic Fields: A New Coupling Function. Journal of Geophysical Research. 2011，116，A12215,doi:10.1029/2011JA016718 (Download Here)

Du et al. Observations of dawn-dusk aligned polar cap aurora during the substorms of January 21, 2005. Planetary and Space Science. 2011, 59(13) :1551-1558（Download Here）

Du et al. Anomalous geomagnetic storm of 21–22 January 2005: A storm main phase during northward IMFs. Journal of Geophysical Research. 2008, 113, A10214, doi:10.1029/2008JA013284 （Download Here）