Effects of solar variations on standing Alfven waves in the dayside magnetosphere: Polar observations

In March and April 2001, the apogee (~9 Re) of the Polar spacecraft was located near the subsolar magnetopause with its orbital plane nearly parallel to a magnetic meridian plane. Polar electric and magnetic field data acquired during the two-month interval of solar maximum have been used to study fundamental standing Alfven waves near the subsolar meridian plane (magnetic local time = 1000-1400 hours) at magnetic latitudes from the equator to $\pm45$ degrees and at L values between 7 and 12. In the frequency band from 1.5 to 10 mHz, fundamental mode oscillations were identified based on high coherence (more than 0.7) and an approximately 90-degree phase shift between the azimuthal magnetic and radial electric field components. The L dependence of the fundamental frequencies is studied, and the frequencies are compared with those observed near the solar minimum interval (Takahashi et al. 2001). We found that the average frequencies in solar maximum are lower than those in solar minimum by a factor of ~2. This implies that the mass density in solar maximum is higher than that in solar minimum by a factor of ~4. Since there is a positive correlation between solar irradiance and solar activity, we suggest that the ionosphere in solar maximum produces more ions and load magnetic flux tubes with more ions.