Collaborative Research: Meteor Plasmas - Dynamics and Radiowave Scattering

每天都有数十亿粒子撞击地球上层大气，其能量足以在e区电离层产生高密度的等离子体轨迹。在过去的50年里，光学和雷达对这些流星等离子体进行了表征，以推断流星体的特性（速度、起源方向、大小）和大气（风和最近的温度）。该研究将使用理论和数值模拟来研究大气上层物质的沉积以及这些物质是如何运输和转化的。这包括发展基本的等离子体物理理论和磁场中高度碰撞等离子体的计算机模拟。该研究的主要目标之一是模拟流星从烧蚀到弥漫进入大气的演变过程。为了完成这项任务，将开发从亚毫米到几十米的物理尺度和从微秒到秒的动态时间尺度的模型和模拟的组合。将采用三维细胞内粒子（PIC）编码和混合模拟器技术。该研究本质上是跨学科的，解决基本的等离子体物理科学问题，这些问题也与航空、天体物理学和空间科学工程的广泛应用具有很大的实际相关性。此外，该项目具有很强的教育成分。它将为波士顿大学的本科生和研究生提供支持。

Billions of particles impact the Earth's upper atmosphere every day with sufficient energy to create high-density plasma trails in the E-region ionosphere. For the last 50 years, optics and radars have characterized these meteor plasmas in order to infer properties of the meteoroids (speed, direction of origin, size) and the atmosphere (winds and, recently, temperatures). The research will use theoretical and numerical modeling to investigate the deposition of meteoric material in the upper atmosphere and of how this material is transported and transformed. This involves development of basic plasma physics theory and computer simulations for highly collisional plasmas in magnetic fields. One of the primary objectives of the research is to simulate meteor evolution from ablation to suffusion into the atmosphere. To achieve this task, a combination of models and simulations spanning physical scales from sub-millimeters to tens of meters and dynamic time-scales from microseconds to seconds will be developed. The 3-D Particle-in-Cell (PIC) code as well as hybrid simulator techniques will be adopted.The research is interdisciplinary in nature, addressing basic plasma physics science questions that also have great practical relevance to a broad range of applications in aeronomy, astrophysics, and space science engineering. In addition, the project has a strong educational component. It would provide support for both undergraduate and graduate students at Boston University.