GEM: Quantitative Estimates of Plasmaspheric Losses and Implications for Solar Wind-Magnetosphere Coupling

这是一个为期3年的项目，以确定等离子体层材料被侵蚀的等离子体层，随后被对流到向阳面重连网站的影响和影响。具体而言，该项目寻求回答以下科学问题：（1）磁暴期间等离子体层损失如何在向下流入电离层和向向阳面边界层的传输之间分配，以及（2）等离子体层物质向向阳面磁层顶的传输是否减缓了磁重联，这表现在这些时候极帽电位可能系统性降低。 将综合利用IMAGE航天器上的极紫外线仪器提供的等离子体云的全球图像、地球同步航天器提供的冷等离子体密度和流动数据、对哨声进行地面测量得出的密度和总通量管内容以及由SuperDARN雷达测量的跨极冠电位，以解决这些问题。 它将支持一名女科学家的研究事业，她将担任该项目的科学PI。 本科生将通过一个既定的REU计划参与研究项目。 最后，磁重联是一个普遍的过程，在冷等离子体存在下重联减少的观测验证将是一个对许多其他等离子体和天体物理学研究有影响的结果。

This is a 3-year project to determine the effects and implications of plasmaspheric material being eroded from the plasmasphere and subsequently being convected to the dayside reconnection site. Specifically, the project seeks to answer the following science questions: (1) how plasmaspheric losses are partitioned during magnetic storms between downward flow into the ionosphere and transport to the dayside boundary layers and (2) whether transport of plasmaspheric material to the dayside magnetopause slows magnetic reconnection as manifested in a possible systematic reduction in the polar cap potential at these times. Global images of the plasmasphere from the EUV instrument onboard the IMAGE spacecraft; cold plasma density and flow data from geosynchronous spacecraft; density and total flux tube content derived from ground-based measurements of whistlers and cross polar cap potential measured by the SuperDARN radar will be combined to address these questions.The project will have significant broader impacts in a number of ways. It will support the research career of a female scientist, who will act as the science PI on the project. Undergraduate students will participate in the research project through an established REU program. Finally, magnetic reconnection is a universal process and observational verification that reconnection is reduced in the presence of cold plasma would be a result that would have implications for numerous other plasma- and astrophysical studies.