CEDAR: Storm Time Behavior of Electric Fields in the Plasmasphere

University Of Texas At Dallas, Richardson TX

Investigators

Abstract

Electric fields produced by the thermospheric neutral wind dynamo and originating in the magnetosphere generate ion drifts that are sampled by polar orbiting Defense Meteorological Satellite Project (DMSP) satellites F15 and F13. These data, from the years 2001 and 2002 are assembled and analyzed at four distinct local times and used to determine the morphology of zonal ion drift as functions of latitude and magnetic activity. The research product is improved understanding of a variety of ion-transport phenomena, including traveling ionospheric disturbances (TIDs), storm-time enhancements of ion densities. In addition, the coupling of the magnetosphere to the ionosphere is intrinsically investigated by establishing the low latitude limit to the auroral electric field as well as its response to magnetic activity. The data mining, archiving, and correlative analysis is tasked to a female aeronomy graduate student.