CAREER: Electric Fields in Space Plasmas--Aurora and Charging

等离子体中的电场是空间等离子体物理学许多方面的统一主题。这个项目将关注两个关于空间等离子体行为的问题。(1)回流极光区电场的结构和动力学是什么，它们如何与下部电离层相互作用？(2)等离子体中带电物体（如航天器和火箭有效载荷及其仪器）周围的电场结构是什么？这些电场如何影响我们对低能等离子体测量结果的解释？这项研究将包括地面观测、达特茅斯的探测火箭计划、卫星数据分析和实验室研究。它还将包括广泛的学生项目，包括研究生和本科生。这项研究将把我们达特茅斯学院（Dartmouth College）探空火箭小组的研究编织成一个统一的科学成果，在不同的项目之间提供联系和对应。返回电流极光区域对磁层/电离层耦合的影响才刚刚开始被定量地探索，达特茅斯探测火箭小组被很好地置于卫星和地面社区之间，以便在各种数据集之间建立联系。量化电离层耦合低空低能起始的一个重要部分是仔细解释航天器充电对热粒子测量的影响；带电仪器周围的护套结构是空间和实验室等离子体物理学家都感兴趣的问题。达特茅斯学院将建立一个实验室设施，为探索这些影响提供工具。达特茅斯实验室等离子体设施的持续发展将为实验室和太空等离子体的学生提供新的基础设施，并将在达特茅斯物理项目和其他太空等离子体项目之间建立联系。

Electric fields in plasmas are a unifying theme of many aspects of space plasma physics. This project will focus on two particular questions about space plasma behavior. (1) What are the structure and dynamics of electric fields in return-current auroral regions, and how do they interact with the lower ionosphere? (2) What is the structure of electric fields around charged objects in plasmas such as spacecraft and rocket payloads and their instrumentation, and how do these fields color our interpretation of low energy plasma measurements? The study will involve ground-based observations, the sounding-rocket program at Dartmouth, satellite data analysis and laboratory studies. It will also incorporate extensive student projects, both graduate and undergraduate. The study will weave together the studies of our sounding-rocket Dartmouth College group into a unified scientific effort, providing links and correspondences between the different projects. The effects of return current auroral regions on magnetosphere/ionosphere coupling are only beginning to be quantitatively explored, and the Dartmouth sounding-rocket group is well placed between the satellite and ground based communities to draw connections between the various data sets. An important part of quantifying the low-altitude, low-energy beginnings of ionospheric coupling is a careful interpretation of spacecraft charging effects on thermal particle measurements; the structure of sheaths around charged instrumentation is a question that interests both space and laboratory plasma physicists. A Dartmouth laboratory facility will be developed to provide a tool for exploring these effects. The student-driven continued development of the laboratory plasma facility at Dartmouth will provide new infrastructure for students in laboratory and space plasmas, and will build connections between the Dartmouth physics program and other space plasma programs.