GEM: Monitoring the Magnetosphere from Nightside Precipitation Characteristics, and Various Collaborations

在这个项目中，将开发一个系统，通过从DMSP航天器上的探测器测量的夜间高能粒子降水中提取具有地球物理意义的信息来监测磁层的状态。这项工作是在成功完成了关于白天降水数据的类似工作之后进行的，空间科学界对此进行了相当广泛的利用。该系统将使用定量算法实现自动化，并将确定(1)“零能”对流边界(通常是等离子体暂停)，(2)电子平均能量与纬度的大尺度梯度由正变为负的点(主等离子体片开始)，(3)离子高能沉淀截止，(尾电流片开始)，(4)大于35keV电子的稳定捕获边界(也是尾电流片开始的标志)，以及其他各种有地球物理意义的参数。将对这些不同的参数进行调查，以产生可用来比目前的指数，如Kp和AE更准确地描述磁层的指数。

In this project, a system will be developed to monitor the state of the magnetosphere by abstracting geophysically significant information from nighside energetic particle precipitation measured by detectors on the DMSP spacecraft. This work follows similar work successfully accomplished on dayside precipitation data and quite extensively utilized by the space science community. The system will be automated using quantitative algorithms and will determine (1) the "zero energy" convection boundary (often the plasma pause), (2) the point where the large scale gradient in the electron average energy vs latitude changes from positive to negative (the start of the main plasma sheet), (3) the ion high- energy precipitation cutoff, (the start of the tail current sheet), (4) the stable trapping boundary for greater that 35 KeV electrons (also a marker for the start of the tail current sheet), as well as a variety of other parameters of geophysical significance. These various parameters will be investigated to produce indices which may be used to characterize the magnetosphere with more accuracy than do the present indices such as Kp and AE.