Solar Wind Influences on the Earth's Space Environment: Solar Wind-Magnetosphere-Atmosphere Coupling

太阳风对地球空间环境的影响：太阳风-磁层-大气耦合

• 批准号: RGPIN-2017-05472
• 负责人: McWilliams, Kathryn
• 金额: $ 2.19万
• 依托单位: University of Saskatchewan
• 依托单位国家: 加拿大
• 项目类别: Discovery Grants Program - Individual
• 财政年份: 2018
• 资助国家: 加拿大
• 起止时间: 2018-01-01 至 2019-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nserc-crsng.gc.ca/ase-oro/Details-Detailles_eng.asp?id=659447
• 关键词: Solar; Wind; Influences; Earth; Space

The energy budget of Earth's space environment is controlled largely by the energy transfer between the solar wind and the magnetosphere. The degree to which the highly variable solar wind couples to the magnetosphere is controlled by magnetic reconnection between the interplanetary magnetic field and the Earth's magnetic field. Reconnection drives large-scale plasma circulation in the coupled magnetosphere-ionosphere system, i.e., in geospace. Geospace is the region where human space exploration and commercial exploitation of space takes place. The proposed research program aims to investigate the coupling of the solar wind, the magnetosphere and the upper atmosphere, particularly the ionosphere, via simultaneous ground- and space-based observations of: the upstream solar wind conditions, the state of the ionosphere and thermosphere, the circulation of plasma in the magnetosphere, magnetic field variations, and the magnetospheric currents that produce aurora. Ground-based studies of the ionosphere have the advantages of being relatively inexpensive and able to cover vast areas. Since all points in the magnetosphere are linked to the ionosphere by the Earth's magnetic field lines, the ionosphere acts as a large screen onto which magnetosphere dynamics are projected, allowing ground based instrument to remotely sense nearly the entirety of geospace. Satellites, in contrast, have the advantage of being able to measure magnetospheric phenomena in situ with high precision but usually in highly localized regions. Taken together, ground- and space-based datasets provide essential complementary information on plasma physics processes in the magnetosphere. Joint ground- and space-based studies of particles, electromagnetic fields, and currents hold the key to understanding the influence of solar activity on the Earth's space environment.

地球空间环境的能量收支主要由太阳风和磁层之间的能量转移控制。高度变化的太阳风与磁层的耦合程度由行星际磁场和地球磁场之间的磁重联控制。重新连接驱动磁层-电离层耦合系统（即地球空间）中的大规模等离子体循环。地球空间是人类太空探索和太空商业开发发生的区域。拟议的研究计划旨在通过同时进行地面和空间观测来研究太阳风、磁层和高层大气（特别是电离层）的耦合：上游太阳风条件、电离层和热层的状态、磁层中等离子体的循环、磁场变化以及产生极光的磁层电流。电离层的地面研究具有相对便宜且能够覆盖广阔区域的优点。由于磁层中的所有点都通过地球磁场线与电离层相连，因此电离层充当了磁层动力学投影到其上的大屏幕，使地面仪器能够远程感知几乎整个地球空间。相比之下，卫星的优势在于能够高精度地现场测量磁层现象，但通常是在高度局部化的区域。总而言之，地面和空间数据集提供了磁层中等离子体物理过程的重要补充信息。对粒子、电磁场和电流进行地面和太空联合研究是了解太阳活动对地球空间环境影响的关键。