Empirical reconstruction of pre-1995 extreme storms using ML-derived solar wind inputs (Dataset)

Dataset for Empirical reconstruction of pre-1995 extreme storms using ML-derived solar wind inputs

This version fixes a bug present within extremeStormsZenodoArchive.zip, in extremeEvents2022/march1989_6x20_32000nn_fac16_merged/fittingRescaled and extremeEvents2022/november2003_6x20_32000nn_fac16_merged/fittingRescaled. The files in these directories in the previous versions had incorrect values.

Abstract:

The geomagnetic field, electric currents, and storm-time plasma pressure are reconstructed for extreme storms before 1995: the July 1982 superstorm and the March 1989 Hydro-Qu\'ebec grid collapse event. The reconstructions are based on an improved magnetic field data mining method that fills gaps in the solar wind data using a recently published machine learning algorithm. The data mining reconstructions are rescaled using statistics of the nearest neighbor bins to eliminate the bias toward weaker storms. A concurrent reconstruction method provides the combined description of storms and substorms: storm and substorm features are first reconstructed independently for the inner and tail magnetosphere, respectively, and then the data fitting is reiterated using synthetic data generated using the first round of reconstructions. The data fitting procedure is further tuned to better resolve the location of the field-aligned currents. Testing the updated methods for the November 2003 and 1982 superstorms significantly improves the validation results for in-situ observations. The effect of rescaling doubles the peak ring current density (from 81 to 168 $\text{nA/m}^2$ for the  November 2003 storm) while the tuned fitting procedure shifts the Region-2 field-aligned currents equatorward to magnetic latitudes as low as $50^{\circ}$. Rescaling also intensifies the equatorial currents such that X-line arcs and even an X-loop are formed within geosynchronous orbit, where reconnection may approach a relativistic regime. Such a change in the field topology limits the peak plasma pressure obtained from the quasi-static force balance equation.

DOI for Space Weather article: https://doi.org/10.1029/2024SW004293