Investigation on the characteristics of the South Atlantic Anomaly

Abstract. The South Atlantic Anomaly (SAA) is known for its weak Earth’s magnetic field strength. In this research, power spectrum analysis method was applied on the Horizontal intensity of the Earth’s magnetic field with data sample rate used at 1 min. Four active periods on 18 March 2012, 10 March 2012, 25 April 2012, and 30 June 2013 which represent the occurrence of geomagnetic storms and 4 normal periods on 25 March 2012, 21 March 2012, 4 April 2012, and 15 June 2013 which indicate no geomagnetic storm event were examined. Research was conducted by analyzing the SAA region where comparisons were made between the middle latitude region and the high latitude region. The results indicate that the SAA region tends to be persistent, and this may be due to the ring current. The middle latitude region experienced a mixture of persistent and antipersistent characteristics and this may be due to the transportation of plasma and seasonal weather variations. The high latitude region tends to be antipersistent. This may indicate that the high latitude region is influenced by geomagnetic storms and the aurora.