RUI: The Role of the Ionosphere in Determining Magnetospheric Dynamics

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This grant supports research at a Primarily Undergraduate Institution. The majority of this funding goes to supporting the students to participation in fundamental space weather research. Specifically, they will investigate how the high altitude, non-neutral atmosphere (the ionosphere) affects modes of transport in Earth's magnetic field (the magnetosphere). This involves incorporating auroral data into an existing predictive model. This will improve the community's ability to understand and predict space weather ultimately providing a broader societal benefit by helping to protect human technology from damage due to space weather phenomenon. Many studies have focused on the solar wind driving to explain the different modes of magnetospheric transport, while ignoring the role of the ionosphere. This project will investigate if ionospheric feedback helps determine what mode the magnetosphere enters. The team will incorporate both auroral data and modeling to calculate the ionospheric conductance, Joule heating, and other parameters during these events. By using Polar UVI auroral images as an input to the Global Ionosphere-Thermosphere Model (GITM), accurate simulations of key ionospheric parameters during these modes are anticipated, making this the first study of its kind.