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First joint observations of space weather events over Mexico

Abstract:

The Mexican Space Weather Service (SCiESMEX in Spanish) and National Space Weather Laboratory (LANCE in Spanish) were organized in 2014 and in 2016, respectively, to provide space weather monitoring and alerts, as well as scientific research in Mexico. In this work, we present the results of the first joint observations of two events (22 June and 29 September 2015) with our local network of instruments and their related products. This network includes the MEXART radio telescope (solar flare and radio burst), the Compact Astronomical Low-frequency, Low-cost Instrument for Spectroscopy in Transportable Observatories (CALLISTO) at the MEXART station (solar radio burst), the Mexico City Cosmic Ray Observatory (cosmic ray fluxes), GPS receiver networks (ionospheric disturbances), and the Teoloyucan Geomagnetic Observatory (geomagnetic field). The observations show that we detected significant space weather effects over the Mexican territory: geomagnetic and ionospheric disturbances (22 June 2015), variations in cosmic ray fluxes, and also radio communications' interferences (29 September 2015). The effects of these perturbations were registered, for the first time, using space weather products by SCiESMEX: total electron content (TEC) maps, regional geomagnetic index <i>K</i>mex, radio spectrographs of low frequency, and cosmic ray fluxes. These results prove the importance of monitoring space weather phenomena in the region and the need to strengthening the instrumentation network.