Geomagnetic storms forecast using IPS observations

Abstract

IPS observations have shown to provide a very good track of the disturbances in the solar wind flowing out from coronal holes at the Sun and eventually hitting the Earth and causing geomagnetic and ionospheric perturbations. A continuous survey of IPS for 900 stellar radio sources, carried out from July 1978 to September 1979, showed that most of the sudden commencements of geomagnetic storms took place more than one day after the first IPS detection of the disturbance in the interplanetary medium, and some of them even four or five days later. This shows that IPS observations can also be a useful tool in the forecasting of geomagnetic perturbations and associated effects.