A sensitive geomagnetic activity index for space weather operation

[1] There is an ongoing demand for real-time geomagnetic indices in space services. The traditional 3 h K index and K-derived planetary indices cannot issue alters promptly during large storms, and the 3 h interval is much larger than the time scales of ionospheric responses. To overcome these difficulties, we define a new consecutive and linear geomagnetic activity index, the range of hourly H component index (rH) with 1 min resolution, and develop a local rH index nowcast system for space weather operation, which can issue geomagnetic storm alerts quickly. We also derive Kp/Ap indices conveniently from a single station data to describe the global geomagnetic activity. Then we make a statistic comparison between rH and other definite index values during storm and find that rH is sensitive to the geomagnetic disturbance and can reflect the geomagnetic activity more delicately.