AGS-PRF: The Role of Electric Fields in Plasma Structuring and Transport in the Mid- to High-Latitude Ionosphere

太阳风是一股连续的太阳等离子体和磁场流，吹过地球，产生电场，并导致磁层内等离子体的大规模循环。地球的磁力线被“冻结”到等离子体中，因此被带入这种对流中。特别有趣的是，这些对流磁力线的底部贯穿着高纬度的电离层(地球上层大气中的一层带电粒子层)，并使电离层等离子体运动，形成了随着太阳风的变化而变化的对流模式。在较低纬度，电离层等离子体与地球共转。与暴风雨空间天气有关的太阳风的扰动加强了磁层中的对流，其效果是将电离层中的对流模式向赤道扩展到以前电离层等离子体共同旋转的区域。该项目旨在利用一套新建成的雷达，改进对中纬度地区扩大对流模式部分的了解，此前中纬度地区的观测资料很少。这对于理解空间风暴及其对地球的影响至关重要。该项目改进的对流模式将使更广泛的新研究成为可能。这一地球科学博士后奖学金将支持对一名早期职业科学家的进一步培训。这也将最终导致更准确的空间天气模型对社会有价值。为了实现其目标，该项目将使用超级双极光雷达网(SuperDARN)，这是构建高纬度对流模式及其变异性的主要工具。最近，SuperDARN扩大了其在北半球的覆盖范围，增加了9部中纬度雷达和3部极帽雷达，以更好地解决对流模式的这些部分。这项工作将使用从2008年到2014年的七年SuperDARN数据，结合OMNI 2数据库的太阳风观测，产生一个扩展和改进的高纬度对流模式模型，因为它对太阳风驱动因素做出了反应。

The solar wind, a continuous stream of solar plasma and magnetic fields blowing past the Earth, generates an electric field and causes a large-scale circulation of plasma within the magnetosphere. Earth's magnetic field lines are "frozen" into the plasma and thus are entrained in this convection. Of particular interest, the feet of these convecting magnetic field lines thread the ionosphere (a layer of charged particles in the Earth's upper atmosphere) at high latitudes and set the ionospheric plasma into motion as well, forming patterns of convection that change as the solar wind changes. At lower latitudes the ionospheric plasma co-rotates with the Earth. Disturbances in the solar wind associated with stormy space weather strengthen the convection in the magnetosphere, which has the effect of expanding the convection pattern in the ionosphere equatorward into regions where previously the ionospheric plasma was co-rotating. This project aims at improving knowledge of the portion of the expanded convection pattern in the mid-latitude region, where observations have previously been sparse, using a set of newly built radars. This is crucial to understanding space storms and their effects at Earth. The improved convection patterns from this project will enable a broad spectrum of new research. This geoscience postdoctoral fellowship will support the further training of an early-career scientist. It will also ultimately result in more accurate space weather models of value to society.To accomplish its goals, this project will use the Super Dual Auroral Radar Network (SuperDARN), which is a primary tool for constructing the high-latitude convection pattern and its variability. Recently SuperDARN expanded its coverage in the northern hemisphere by adding nine mid-latitude radars and three polar cap radars to better resolve these sections of the convection pattern. The work will use seven years of SuperDARN data from 2008 through 2014 in combination with solar wind observations from the OMNI 2 database to produce an expanded and improved model of the high-latitude convection pattern as it responds to solar wind drivers.