AGS-PRF: The Role of Electric Fields in Plasma Structuring and Transport in the Mid- to High-Latitude Ionosphere

Thomas Evan G, Blacksburg VA

Investigators

Abstract

The solar wind, a continuous stream of solar plasma and magnetic fields blowing past the Earth, generates an electric field and causes a large-scale circulation of plasma within the magnetosphere. Earth's magnetic field lines are "frozen" into the plasma and thus are entrained in this convection. Of particular interest, the feet of these convecting magnetic field lines thread the ionosphere (a layer of charged particles in the Earth's upper atmosphere) at high latitudes and set the ionospheric plasma into motion as well, forming patterns of convection that change as the solar wind changes. At lower latitudes the ionospheric plasma co-rotates with the Earth. Disturbances in the solar wind associated with stormy space weather strengthen the convection in the magnetosphere, which has the effect of expanding the convection pattern in the ionosphere equatorward into regions where previously the ionospheric plasma was co-rotating. This project aims at improving knowledge of the portion of the expanded convection pattern in the mid-latitude region, where observations have previously been sparse, using a set of newly built radars. This is crucial to understanding space storms and their effects at Earth. The improved convection patterns from this project will enable a broad spectrum of new research. This geoscience postdoctoral fellowship will support the further training of an early-career scientist. It will also ultimately result in more accurate space weather models of value to society. To accomplish its goals, this project will use the Super Dual Auroral Radar Network (SuperDARN), which is a primary tool for constructing the high-latitude convection pattern and its variability. Recently SuperDARN expanded its coverage in the northern hemisphere by adding nine mid-latitude radars and three polar cap radars to better resolve these sections of the convection pattern. The work will use seven years of SuperDARN data from 2008 through 2014 in combination with solar wind observations from the OMNI 2 database to produce an expanded and improved model of the high-latitude convection pattern as it responds to solar wind drivers.