Storms and Substorms from Kinetic Plasma Theory Modeling

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This project uses plasma physics and nonlinear theory to model the solar wind-driven storms and substorms in the Earth's magnetosphere. The project has three basic parts: (1) modeling of the nonlinear transfer of solar wind power to the Earth's ring current and ionosphere, (2) a theoretical and computational effort to model the electromagnetic pulses that propagate through the geotail plasma, which connect the two sites where substorm activity originates, and (3) using the Earthward propagating electromagnetic-plasma pulse as the source for injecting high energy electrons into the inner magnetosphere. The project involves kinetic stability analysis of anisotropic ion distributions created by high-speed plasma streams and accelerated plasma flux tubes to test the hypothesis that the source of Pi2 pulsation bursts are from these features of the storm and substorm dynamics. Local models of fast, electron-scale magnetic reconnection will be used in the substorm modeling. The base model runs in real-time using ACE spacecraft data and new features of this project will be added to the real-time model each year. The physics real-time model being developed will provide an important tool for interpreting the new data expected from the science missions THEMIS and MMS, which are both designed to examine the substorm conundrum. The substorm is the basic method by which magnetic energy in Earth's magnetotail is explosively released. The same type of process takes place in coronal mass ejections on the Sun and presumably on plasma-wind-blown magnetized stars. Similar processes occur in the core of laboratory plasmas in tokamaks. The research has a significant science educational component for both pre-college students and college students. The project will also support research to be done by graduate students.