Magnetospheric Physics at Southampton

本研究计划在南安普顿大学进行，研究两个行星系统（地球和木星的磁层）对太阳风的响应。我们对地球磁层的研究将解决驱动太阳风和地球磁场之间相互作用的基本过程以及为什么它间歇性发生的问题。我们将利用新发射的NASA使命MMS的数据，以前所未有的细节探测这种相互作用的特征，并确定控制它的物理过程。这种相互作用的性质取决于行星际磁场的方向，这与太阳风有关。这个方向是高度可变的，但可以被称为“向北”或“向南”。我们将使用卫星观测来测试以前在行星际磁场“北向”期间观察到的磁层复杂结构的机制，并测试最先进的模拟是否（以及在什么条件下）再现这种活动。关于木星的磁层，我们将使用强大的望远镜在X射线波长下拍摄木星的极光。这些X射线极光的“图片”将与一艘名为朱诺号的航天器的测量结果进行比较，该航天器正在绕木星运行，并正在对其磁场环境进行采样。X射线观测和朱诺号测量的结合将使我们能够将X射线的物理原因与木星磁层和太阳风的局部条件联系起来。我们想了解是什么物理机制驱动了木星的X射线极光，以及为什么它们有时会以周期性的方式闪烁。

This Consolidated Grant application proposes research which will be undertaken at the University of Southampton, into the responses of two planetary systems (the magnetospheres of Earth and Jupiter) to the solar wind.Our research into Earth's magnetosphere will address questions about the fundamental process that drives the interaction between the solar wind and the Earth's magnetic field, and why it appears to occur intermittently. We will do so by exploiting data from the newly-launched NASA mission MMS in order to probe signatures of this interaction in unprecedented detail, and to determine the physical processes controlling it. The nature of this interaction depends on the orientation of the interplanetary magnetic field, which is associated with the solar wind. This orientation is highly changeable, but can be referred to as 'northward' or 'southward'. We will use satellite observations to test mechanisms that have been advocated for previously observed complex structure in the magnetosphere during periods when the interplanetary magnetic field is 'northward', and to test whether (and under what conditions) state-of-the-art simulations reproduce such activity.With respect to Jupiter's magnetosphere, we will use powerful telescopes to image Jupiter's auroras at X-ray wavelengths. These "pictures" of the X-ray aurora will be compared with measurements by a spacecraft called Juno which is orbiting Jupiter and is sampling its magnetic environment. The combination of the X-ray observations and Juno measurements will allow us to link the physics of what causes the X-rays to local conditions in Jupiter's magnetosphere and in the solar wind. We want to understand what physical mechanisms drive Jupiter's X-ray auroras and why they sometimes appear to flash in a periodic way.