Space Weather: Further Development of a Model of Solar Wing-Magnetosphere-Ionosphere Interaction

University Of Massachusetts Lowell, Lowell MA

Investigators

Abstract

This project will combine MHD modeling using the Michigan MHD code with satellite and ground-based observations to study the interaction of the solar wind with the magnetopause. In particular, two topics will be examined. The first topic is the mechanism by which momentum is transferred from the solar wind to the magnetosphere by reconnection at the dayside magnetopause. The second topic will be the response of the magnetosphere to a change of the interplanetary magnetic field from southward to northward.