Solar Modal Structure of the Engineering Environment

• Published in: Proceedings of the IEEE Vol. 95; no. 5; pp. 1085 - 1132
• Main Authors: Thomson, David J., Lanzerotti, Louis J., Vernon, Frank L., Lessard, Marc R., Smith, Lindsay T. P.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York IEEE 01.05.2007; The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc. (IEEE)
• Subjects: Artificial satellites; Astronomy; Cell phones; Cellular; Cellular phones; Communications satellites; Complex systems; Couplings; Earth; electrical technologies; Estimates; Failure; field-line resonances; Frequency estimation; geomagnetic disturbances; geomagnetic induction; helioseismology; heliosphere; Induced voltage; interplanetary medium; ionosphere; Magnetic fields; magnetosphere; multitaper; Robustness; Seismic phenomena; seismology; solar wind; space plasmas; Space vehicles; space weather; spacecraft; Sun; sun-Earth connections; Systems engineering and theory; telecommunications
• ISSN: 0018-9219; 1558-2256
• DOI: 10.1109/JPROC.2007.894712

This paper describes some unanticipated effects of the normal modes of the sun on engineering and scientific systems. We begin with historical, scientific, and statistical background, then present evidence for the effects of solar modes on various systems. Engineering evidence for these modes was first noticed in an investigation of communications satellite failures and second in a study of excessive dropped calls in cellular phone systems. The paper also includes several sections on multitaper estimates of spectra, canonical coherences, robust, and cyclostationary variants of multitapering, and related statistical techniques used to separate the various components of this complex system. In our attempt to understand this unexpected source of problems, we have found that solar modes are detectable in the interplanetary magnetic fields and energetic particles at the Ulysses spacecraft, five astronomical units from the Earth. These modes couple into the magnetosphere, the ionosphere, the geomagnetic field, and atmospheric pressure. Estimates of the power spectrum of data from solar radio telescopes and induced voltages on ocean cables show what appear to be solar modes at both lower and higher frequencies than the optically measured solar p-modes. Most surprisingly, these modes are easily detected in seismic data, where they literally shake the Earth.