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

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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.