Geomagnetic activity: A case study of solar proton events

Abstract

The study is about the geomagnetic activity a case study of SPEs and their interaction with the atmosphere. In this study, we go ahead and discuss the far reaching consequences of SPEs on the atmosphere the case of reducing the ozone layer through formation of odd hydrogenHOx and odd nitrogenNOxthat catalystically destroy the ozone. The ozone layer shelters us from dangerous radiations form the sun whose depletion directly exposes us to these radiation. Also expected examples of artificial ozone depleting activities other than SPEs. Besides artificial causes of ozone depletion like the manufactured chemicals especially halocarbons, and chrolofluorocarbons. Also, expected in this study is the origin of solar protons, their transport to the earth and their effects on the ozone layer. Solar protons are positively charged ions carried by solar wind especially during a geomagnetic storm into the interplannetary space where they together with electrons interact with the planets having magnetic fields creating SPEs for the case of protons which is the pivot of the study. Incorporating several evidence from various publication by a variety of scholars, this study shows that the solar protons do destroy the ozone layer exposing our atmosphere to harmful radiations like ultraviolent radiations which have far reaching consequences on life such as skin cancer, immune suppression and eye damage.The study is achieved by using a Timeseries method on the month of July 2017 where we use geomagnetic indices of dst,ae and kp in addition to the solar wind parameters of solarwind flow speed, solarwind number density and solarwind pressure which all do show the signature of solar protons in the month of July 2017 as yet to be discussed.