Geomagnetic storms, dependence on solar and interplanetary phenomena: a review

Abstract

Geomagnetic storms are probably the most intensively measured perturbations of the Earth’s magnetic field. They are multi-faceted phenomena that result as a final element of a chain of processes that starts on the Sun, a ects the solar wind and the interplanetary medium, and ends on the Earth. At present, one of the key questions in the scientific community is the ability to predict the occurrence of geomagnetic storms on the basis of solar and interplanetary space observations. For these reasons, in recent years a number of investigations have been carried out to understand the solar-terrestrial relationships and to ascertain those factors that are ultimately responsible for geomagnetic storms. Here a brief review of published results on the geomagnetic storm e ectiveness from CMEs, solar flares, as well as interplanetary event observations, is presented.