Ionospheric turbulence

高纬度电离层是一个重要的区域，不仅对于依赖于我们对其中发生的物理现象的透彻理解的应用来说，而且因为它包含起源于行星际空间的过程的足迹。本提案的主要目标是解决与物理过程有关的一些最基本的问题，这些物理过程很容易被定性为湍流和间歇性的，并且在空间等离子体即极光电离层中遇到。我的研究的很大一部分将致力于研究发生在极光E和F区域的电离层湍流的发展，以及它对控制其与磁层耦合的反馈机制的影响。拟议的研究将调查相干的非线性电离层等离子体结构是如何产生的，以及它们可能对跨越感兴趣边界的传输特性产生什么样的影响。我们建议仔细研究在过去二十年中观察到的离子外流的物理机制。为了彻底理解O流出到磁层，我们建议包括与高度相关的碰撞效应。在一定程度上，O和原子氧之间的离子-离子碰撞和电荷交换被忽略了，我们认为它们在300公里以上的高度起到了重要作用。我们还将尝试通过将微观尺度的电离层物理与中尺度和宏观尺度的磁层物理联系起来，将拼图拼凑在一起。

The high-latitude ionosphere is is an important region not only for the applications that rely upon our thorough understanding of the physical phenomena occurring in it, but also because it contains the footprints of processes which originate in the interplanetary space. The primary goal of the present proposal is to address some of the most fundamental questions related to physical processes that can easily be qualified as turbulent and intermittent and which are encountered in the space plasma that is the auroral ionosphere. A substantial fraction of my research shall be devoted to the study of the development of ionospheric turbulence as it occurs in the auroral E and F regions and on its impact on the feedback mechanisms that govern its coupling to the magnetosphere in particular. The proposed studies will investigate how coherent nonlinear ionospheric plasma structures arise, and what kind of impact they may have on the transport properties across the boundaries of interest. We propose to take a close look at the physical mechanisms responsible for the ion outflows that have been observed over the past two decades. To understand thoroughly the O+ outflows into the magnetosphere, we propose to include collisional effects which are height dependent. To a certain extent, ion-ion collisions and charge exchange between O+ and atomic Oxygen have been ignored, and we believe they play an important role at altitude greater than 300 Km. We will also try to put the pieces of puzzle together by linking the micro-scale ionospheric physics to the meso-scale and macro-scale magnetospheric physics.