Geomagnetic disturbance of the meridian chain at mid and low latitudes during 2015 geomagnetic storms

This paper presented an analysis of geomagnetic disturbance observed on the ground during geomagnetic storms with different intensities in 2015 using the meridian chain data at geomagnetic mid and low latitudes. Ground observation records superimpose varying types of space-current system and noise interference. Geomagnetic disturbance with variation of discontinuity and irregularities are difficult to identify and distinguish. We proposed a variational mode decomposition (VMD) algorithm for reconstructing geomagnetic horizontal ( $H$ $H$ ) disturbance signals. We decomposed the geomagnetic signals into geomagnetic disturbance signals, diurnal variation signals, and noise disturbance signals using the VMD algorithm. Intrinsic mode functions (IMFs) were selected to form the reconstructed signal, which represented a geomagnetic disturbance during a geomagnetic storm. We investigated the decreased amplitude of $H$ $H$ component obtained from the reconstructed signals during main phase of geomagnetic storms with different geomagnetic storms intensities and seasons at mid and low latitudes. The maximum values of gradient variation of $H$ $H $ component disturbance with geomagnetic latitude cosine are near magnetic latitude 30°N during geomagnetic storms with different intensities and seasons. Ionopheric structural changes in the low-to-mid latitude transition zone maybe the primary cause. The result provides a reference for the complex coupling relationship between the ionosphere and magnetosphere during geomagnetic storms.