GEM: Integration of Plasma Sheet Bubbles into Modeling of the Inner Magnetosphere

University Of New Hampshire, Durham NH

Investigators

Abstract

Space weather results from changes in the solar wind and how it impacts the near-Earth space environment. Plasma injections from the outer region of the magnetosphere (known as the magnetotail) bring relativistic particles into the inner regions of the magnetosphere. Understanding this process is important for building predictive models of space weather – to predict, for instance, levels of radiation and relativistic particles that can damage spacecraft, provide health risks to astronauts, disrupt radio communications, and cause power grid blackouts. The results of this project have direct applications in space weather models, and will thus contribute to the goals set out in the National Space Weather Action Plan. A newly-coupled global magnetosphere-inner magnetosphere model (OpenGGCM-CIMI) will be used to investigate the integration of plasma sheet injections into the inner magnetosphere region. The work will focus on the transient injections associated with regions of low flux tube entropy known as bubbles. The new model will provide novel capabilities for the analysis of plasma sheet injections, including: (1) the ability to track plasma sheet injections from birth in the plasma sheet to dissolution into the inner magnetosphere, (2) the preservation of pitch angle distribution information to track the position and evolution of the injection, and (3) the inclusion of the entire inner magnetosphere particle energy spectrum and most loss processes (to provide realistic behavior). Satellite data will be used to validate model results. Data from the Van Allen Probes will be used to identify and characterize injections in the ring current region. Data from other spacecraft (THEMIS, GOES, Cluster, and MMS) will be used to analyze these bubble-driven flows in the plasma sheet region. Where possible, conjunctions of spacecraft will be used to connect the observations. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.