Solar Wind and Interplanetary Magnetic Field Influences on the Earth's Space Environment: Solar Wind-Magnetosphere-Ionosphere Coupling

地球空间环境的大部分能量收支由太阳风和磁层之间的能量转移控制。高度变化的太阳风耦合到磁层的程度控制着太阳风粒子沿着沿着地球磁场线沉淀到高层大气的通道。由于磁层中的所有点都通过地磁场线与电离层相连，电离层就像一个大屏幕，磁层动态被投射到上面，使地面仪器能够遥感几乎整个地球空间。我将研究磁层中的对流模式，这对于理解系统对太阳风和行星际磁场的外部强迫的响应非常重要。磁层可以经历三种现象，到目前为止，被归类为物理上不同的现象：稳定的磁层对流，亚暴和磁层事件。最近的研究表明，这些反应模式可能更多地位于沿着反应的连续体。被称为SuperDARN的国际雷达阵列每分钟都能获得全球范围的电离层对流地图，非常适合这项工作。我还将在空间天气和气候之间的关键耦合区域--地球电离层中研究空间天气和气候之间的关系。在全球气候研究中，太阳变率被认为是地球气候变化的一个可能来源。其机制仍有待确定，关于这两个区域是如何连接的几乎一无所知。过去有趣的研究表明，天气系统的强度与行星际磁场的方向之间存在相关性。位于带电空间环境和中性大气之间的电离层-中间层-热层是理解日地耦合如何影响气候的关键。初步工作表明，太阳风和IMF直接连接到地磁场的极冠发挥着重要作用。

The majority of the energy budget of the Earth's space environment is controlled by the energy transfer between the solar wind and the magnetosphere. The degree to which the highly variable solar wind couples to the magnetosphere controls the access of solar wind particles precipitating along the Earth's magnetic field lines to the upper atmosphere. Since all points in the magnetosphere are linked to the ionosphere by the geomagnetic field lines, the ionosphere acts as a large screen onto which magnetosphere dynamics are projected, allowing the ground-based instruments to remotely sense nearly the entirety of geospace. I will investigate modes of convection in the magnetosphere, which are important to understanding the response of the system to external forcing by the solar wind and interplanetary magnetic field. The magnetosphere can experience three phenomena that have, until now, been classified as physically distinct phenomena: steady magnetospheric convection, substorms, and sawtooth events. Recent work suggests that these response modes may lie more along a continuum of response. The global-scale maps of ionospheric convection that the international array of radars called SuperDARN obtains every minute are ideally suited for this work. I will also investigate the relationship between space weather and climate in the key coupling region between the two-the Earth's ionosphere. In the study of global climate, solar variability has been identified as a possible source of climate change on Earth. The mechanism remains to be identified, and next to nothing is known about how the two regions may be connected. Intriguing studies in the past have shown a correlation between the intensity of weather systems and the orientation of the interplanetary magnetic field. The ionosphere-mesosphere- thermosphere layer that lies between the electrified space environment and the neutral atmosphere holds the key to understanding how solar-terrestrial coupling may affect climate. Initial work suggests that the polar caps, where the solar wind and IMF are directly connected to the geomagnetic field, play an important role.