GEM: Turbulent Structure of the Magnetopause Current Layer

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An integral component of the multi-agency U.S. Global Change Research Program (Our Changing Planet," Committee on Earth Sciences, 1991) is understanding and modeling the geospace environment. As part of its contribution to the U.S. Global Change Research Program, the National Science Foundation's Division of Atmospheric Sciences has established a new research initiative, Geospace Environment Modeling (GEM), with the goal of supporting basic research into the dynamical and structural properties of geospace, leading to the construction of a global geospace model with predictive capability. The subjects of the first GEM campaign are the magnetospheric boundary, the magnetosheath beyond it, and the connection from the boundary through the magnetosphere to the ionosphere. The magnetopause is the boundary between the shocked solar wind plasma in the magnetosheath and magnetospheric plasma. Magnetic reconnection and anomalous transport at the magnetopause are key mechanisms for the transport of solar wind plasma into the magnetosphere, whose understanding is a priority of the Geospace Environment Modeling (GEM) Program. The goal of this grant is to develop a model of turbulence fluctuations and transport in the magnetopause current layer which can be coupled with simulations of collisionless reconnection and compared with observations.