Intense Geomagnetic Storms in The Maximum Phase of Solar Cycle 24 Observed From a Low-Latitude Ground Station

Abstract

Due to the complexities of magnetospheric research, the installation and management of new magnetic ground stations according to modern standards is crucial for monitoring magnetospheric disturbances and related phenomena. In response to the development of new in situ tools and ground-based data sets that support these studies, data generated by La Serena low-latitude magnetic ground station (at geographic coordinates: ‒29.827, ‒71.261; and magnetic coordinates: ‒16.55, 0.17) to describe intense geomagnetic storms were evaluated. This station in the city of La Serena (Chile), is supported by the University of La Serena's Laboratory for Space and Atmospheric Physics (LAFE-SAT). With these data, we studied the five most intense geomagnetic storms (Dst<‒100 nT) occurring during the maximum phase of solar cycle 24 (from 2014 to early 2016). Results show that the H component variations of the La Serena station measurements consistent with the Dst index variations reported for each storm analyzed, obtaining correlation coefficient values of up to 0.97 for storms with Dst<‒200 nT. Also, our results are consistent with the strong influence of the magnetospheric/ionospheric current systems over the H component during an intense geomagnetic storm.