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

太阳风是太阳等离子体和磁场的连续流，吹过地球，产生电场，导致磁层内等离子体的大规模循环。地球的磁力线被“冻结”在等离子体中，因此被这种对流所裹挟。特别有趣的是，这些对流磁场线的末端在高纬度地区穿过电离层（地球上层大气中的一层带电粒子），并使电离层等离子体也运动起来，形成对流的模式，这种模式随着太阳风的变化而变化。在低纬度地区，电离层等离子体与地球共同旋转。与空间风暴天气相关的太阳风扰动加强了磁层中的对流，从而将电离层中的对流模式向赤道方向扩展到以前电离层等离子体同向旋转的区域。该项目旨在利用一套新建的雷达，提高对中纬度地区扩展对流模式部分的认识，该地区以前的观测很少。这对于理解太空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广泛的新研究成为可能。这个地球科学博士后奖学金将支持一名早期职业科学家的进一步培训。它还将最终产生对社会有价值的更准确的太空天气模型。为了实现其目标，该项目将使用超级双极光雷达网络（SuperDARN），这是构建高纬度对流模式及其变率的主要工具。最近SuperDARN扩大了它在北半球的覆盖范围，增加了9个中纬度雷达和3个极帽雷达，以更好地解决对流模式的这些部分。这项工作将使用SuperDARN从2008年到2014年的7年数据，结合OMNI 2数据库的太阳风观测数据，产生一个扩展和改进的高纬度对流模式模型，因为它响应太阳风驱动因素。

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.