Compiling Magnetosheath Statistical Data Sets Under Specific Solar Wind Conditions: Lessons Learnt From the Dayside Kinetic Southward IMF GEM Challenge

Abstract The Geospace Environmental Modelling (GEM) community offers a framework for collaborations between modelers, observers, and theoreticians in the form of regular challenges. In many cases, these challenges involve model‐data comparisons to provide wider context to observations or validate mo...

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Main Authors: A. P. Dimmock, H. Hietala, Y. Zou
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: American Geophysical Union (AGU) 2020-06-01
Series:Earth and Space Science
Subjects:
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.1029/2020EA001095
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author A. P. Dimmock
H. Hietala
Y. Zou
author_facet A. P. Dimmock
H. Hietala
Y. Zou
author_sort A. P. Dimmock
collection DOAJ
description Abstract The Geospace Environmental Modelling (GEM) community offers a framework for collaborations between modelers, observers, and theoreticians in the form of regular challenges. In many cases, these challenges involve model‐data comparisons to provide wider context to observations or validate model results. To perform meaningful comparisons, a statistical approach is often adopted, which requires the extraction of a large number of measurements from a specific region. However, in complex regions such as the magnetosheath, compiling these data can be difficult. Here, we provide the statistical context of compiling statistical data for the southward IMF GEM challenge initiated by the “Dayside Kinetic Processes in Global Solar Wind‐Magnetosphere Interaction” focus group. It is shown that matching very specific upstream conditions can severely impact the statistical data if limits are imposed on several solar wind parameters. We suggest that future studies that wish to compare simulations and/or single events to statistical data should carefully consider at an early stage the availability of data in context with the upstream criteria. We also demonstrate the importance of how specific IMF conditions are defined, the chosen spacecraft, the region of interest, and how regions are identified automatically. The lessons learnt in this study are of wide context to many future studies as well as GEM challenges. The results also highlight the issue where a global statistical perspective has to be balanced with its relevance to more‐extreme, less‐frequent individual events, which is typically the case in the field of space weather.
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spelling doaj.art-1a2d74d8010646afbb94f8029b9989702022-12-21T18:59:06ZengAmerican Geophysical Union (AGU)Earth and Space Science2333-50842020-06-0176n/an/a10.1029/2020EA001095Compiling Magnetosheath Statistical Data Sets Under Specific Solar Wind Conditions: Lessons Learnt From the Dayside Kinetic Southward IMF GEM ChallengeA. P. Dimmock0H. Hietala1Y. Zou2Swedish Institute of Space Physics Uppsala SwedenBlackett Laboratory Imperial College London London UKDepartment of Space Science The University of Alabama in Huntsville Huntsville AL USAAbstract The Geospace Environmental Modelling (GEM) community offers a framework for collaborations between modelers, observers, and theoreticians in the form of regular challenges. In many cases, these challenges involve model‐data comparisons to provide wider context to observations or validate model results. To perform meaningful comparisons, a statistical approach is often adopted, which requires the extraction of a large number of measurements from a specific region. However, in complex regions such as the magnetosheath, compiling these data can be difficult. Here, we provide the statistical context of compiling statistical data for the southward IMF GEM challenge initiated by the “Dayside Kinetic Processes in Global Solar Wind‐Magnetosphere Interaction” focus group. It is shown that matching very specific upstream conditions can severely impact the statistical data if limits are imposed on several solar wind parameters. We suggest that future studies that wish to compare simulations and/or single events to statistical data should carefully consider at an early stage the availability of data in context with the upstream criteria. We also demonstrate the importance of how specific IMF conditions are defined, the chosen spacecraft, the region of interest, and how regions are identified automatically. The lessons learnt in this study are of wide context to many future studies as well as GEM challenges. The results also highlight the issue where a global statistical perspective has to be balanced with its relevance to more‐extreme, less‐frequent individual events, which is typically the case in the field of space weather.https://doi.org/10.1029/2020EA001095magnetosheathstatistical analysissouthward IMFmagnetospherespace weather
spellingShingle A. P. Dimmock
H. Hietala
Y. Zou
Compiling Magnetosheath Statistical Data Sets Under Specific Solar Wind Conditions: Lessons Learnt From the Dayside Kinetic Southward IMF GEM Challenge
Earth and Space Science
magnetosheath
statistical analysis
southward IMF
magnetosphere
space weather
title Compiling Magnetosheath Statistical Data Sets Under Specific Solar Wind Conditions: Lessons Learnt From the Dayside Kinetic Southward IMF GEM Challenge
title_full Compiling Magnetosheath Statistical Data Sets Under Specific Solar Wind Conditions: Lessons Learnt From the Dayside Kinetic Southward IMF GEM Challenge
title_fullStr Compiling Magnetosheath Statistical Data Sets Under Specific Solar Wind Conditions: Lessons Learnt From the Dayside Kinetic Southward IMF GEM Challenge
title_full_unstemmed Compiling Magnetosheath Statistical Data Sets Under Specific Solar Wind Conditions: Lessons Learnt From the Dayside Kinetic Southward IMF GEM Challenge
title_short Compiling Magnetosheath Statistical Data Sets Under Specific Solar Wind Conditions: Lessons Learnt From the Dayside Kinetic Southward IMF GEM Challenge
title_sort compiling magnetosheath statistical data sets under specific solar wind conditions lessons learnt from the dayside kinetic southward imf gem challenge
topic magnetosheath
statistical analysis
southward IMF
magnetosphere
space weather
url https://doi.org/10.1029/2020EA001095
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AT hhietala compilingmagnetosheathstatisticaldatasetsunderspecificsolarwindconditionslessonslearntfromthedaysidekineticsouthwardimfgemchallenge
AT yzou compilingmagnetosheathstatisticaldatasetsunderspecificsolarwindconditionslessonslearntfromthedaysidekineticsouthwardimfgemchallenge