OPP-PRF: Conjugate Experiment to Explore Magnetospheric Phenomena Via Spatial Sonification and Mixed Reality

地球表面的磁场变化可用于遥感和表征近地空间环境中可能影响技术的电流和等离子体波，例如通过在电网中感应电流。南北半球两极区域空间环境的不对称性可以深刻地影响这些磁场变化。测量磁场强度和方向的磁力计已经安装在地球磁力线的北极和南极两端。通过观察两套磁力计的数据，研究人员可以确定由太阳引起的地球磁层（由地球磁场主导的近地空间区域）的扰动是影响北半球还是南半球，还是两者兼有，从而了解南北半球不对称的来源。磁力计数据中出现的一些事件可能很难被计算机识别，但如果数据被转换成声音，人们就很容易识别。研究人员将开发一种在虚拟现实环境中收听数据的工具，这样可以回放来自各种仪器的数据，从而更容易直观地探索数据集。该系统的原型将使用混合现实耳机，用于科学和教育领域，并可用于分析地面和卫星传感器同时采集的数据。该项目将通过分析地磁共轭（基于国际地磁参考场，IGRF）北极和南极磁力计的磁力计数据，研究一种特殊类型的扰动——磁鞘喷流——及其与等离子体波的关系，解决“磁鞘喷流是否经常驱动Pc5/Pc6地磁脉动”的问题。这个问题将首先通过传统的绘图和视觉分析来解决，然后通过呈现数据流作为位于Unity游戏引擎开发的虚拟音频环境中的声源，并通过微软Hololens平台与混合现实演示集成。这种方法将利用人类对声音的空间辨别能力来识别与磁鞘喷流事件相关的地磁脉动（与外层空间等离子体波相关的表面磁场变化），这些事件可能具有较大的南北半球不对称性、空间局域波活动和不规则波形。由此产生的呈现方式将利用现有的磁力计数据存储库，并可能扩展到呈现来自多个传感网络的同步数据集。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Magnetic field variations on the Earth’s surface can be used to remote sense and characterize electrical currents and plasma waves in the near-Earth space environment that can affect technology, for example by inducing currents in power grids. Asymmetries between the space environment in the polar regions of the northern and southern hemispheres can profoundly affect these magnetic field variations. Magnetometers, which measure the strength and direction of magnetic fields, have been installed in the Arctic and Antarctic at opposite ends of the Earth’s magnetic field lines. By looking at data from both sets of magnetometers, researchers can determine whether disturbances in the Earth’s magnetosphere (a region of near-Earth space dominated by the Earth’s magnetic field) caused by the Sun impact the Northern hemisphere, the Southern hemisphere or both, and thus understand the sources of north-south hemisphere asymmetries. Some events that appear in the magnetometer data may be difficult for computers to identify, but easy for people to identify if the data is translated into sound. Researchers will develop a tool for listening to data in a virtual reality environment, so that data from various instruments can be played back, making it easier to explore datasets intuitively. This system will be prototyped using a mixed reality headset for use in both science and education and may be used to analyze data taken at the same time by sensors on the ground and on satellites. This project will examine one particular type of disturbance – magnetosheath jets – and its relation to plasma waves by addressing the question “Do magnetosheath jets routinely drive Pc5/Pc6 geomagnetic pulsations?” via the analysis of magnetometer data from geomagnetically conjugate (based on the International Geomagnetic Reference Field, IGRF) Arctic and Antarctic magnetometers. This question will be approached first through traditional plotting and visual analysis, then by presenting datastreams as sound sources situated in a virtual audio environment developed in the Unity game engine and integrated with mixed reality presentation via the Microsoft Hololens platform. This approach will leverage human capabilities for spatial discrimination of sounds to identify geomagnetic pulsations (surface magnetic field variations related to plasma waves in outer space) related to magnetosheath jet events with potentially large north-south hemispheric asymmetries, spatially localized wave activity, and irregular waveforms. The resulting presentation modality will make use of existing repositories of magnetometer data and may potentially be extended to the presentation of synchronous datasets from multiple sensing networks.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.