Collaborative Research: Meteor Plasmas - Dynamics and Radiowave Scattering

每天有数十亿个粒子撞击地球上层大气，其能量足以在E区电离层形成高密度等离子体轨迹。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，以推断流星体的性质(速度、起源方向、大小)和大气(风以及最近的温度)的性质。这项研究将使用理论和数值模拟来研究高层大气中陨石物质的沉积，以及这种物质是如何输送和转化的。这包括发展基本的等离子体物理理论和磁场中强碰撞等离子体的计算机模拟。这项研究的主要目标之一是模拟流星从烧蚀到弥漫到大气中的演化。为了完成这项任务，将开发一种跨越从几毫米到几十米的物理尺度和从微秒到几秒的动态时间尺度的模型和模拟的组合。将采用3-D粒子单元(PIC)编码以及混合模拟器技术。这项研究具有跨学科性质，涉及基本的等离子体物理科学问题，这些问题在航空航天、天体物理和空间科学工程中也具有很大的实际意义。此外，该项目还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.