Ground-based Magnetoseismic Observations with Surface Magnetic Assessment in Real Time (SMART) Network

University Of California-Los Angeles, Los Angeles CA

Investigators

Abstract

This project reorganizes and enhances the UCLA ground-based magnetometers in the United States, forming a network of fourteen Surface Magnetic Assessment in Real Time (SMART) stations. The SMART network will be used to answer unsolved questions about the plasmasphere. Students will be trained in the hardware and software implementations and in plasmasphere research. The SMART data will be made available to the scientific community and provide an important enhancement in the locations where magnetometer observations are collected to monitor space weather hazards such as geomagnetically induced currents. The objective of the research is better determination of seasonal and local time variations in plasmaspheric density using a remote sensing technique based on field-line resonances, obtaining statistics of events analyzed by magnetoseismology, and providing mid-latitude magnetometer data to the wider community. The methodology is deployment of updated magnetometers in an array of 14 sites in the USA in three meridional chains that connect with meridional chains operated by other groups in Canada. 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.