Measurement of Flow Across Magnetic Field Separatrix

地球磁场与行星际磁场的联系方式是理解近地空间环境的一个有趣而重要的问题。来自极冠的场线从比分界线更高的磁纬度发出时，并不是在地球的另一极闭合，而是与星际磁场相连。穿过这一边界的质量和能量流动提供了开放和闭合的场线之间的质量和能量流动，并驱动了大多数磁层过程。所涉及的能量几乎全部来自太阳风。该项目力求利用来自Sonderstrom非相干散射雷达的电离层观测，对各种地球物理条件下称为磁层重联率的一种重要相关现象展开大规模研究。研究人员已经开发出一种技术，可以很有希望地测量穿过分隔线的等离子体流，并根据这种流来确定重联率。

The way the magnetic field of the earth connects with the interplanetary magnetic field is an interesting and important problem for understanding the near-earth space environment. Field lines from the polar cap do not close at the opposite pole of the earth when they emanate from higher magnetic latitudes than a boundary called the separatrix, but rather connect with the interplanetary field. Flow of mass and energy across this boundary gives mass and energy flow between open and closed field lines, and drives the majority of magnetospheric processes. The energy involved comes almost entirely from the solar wind. This project seeks to initiate a large-scale study of an important related phenomenon called the magnetospheric reconnection rate under a variety of geophysical conditions using ionospheric observations from the Sonderstrom incoherent scatter radar. The investigators have developed a technique that shows great promise of allowing the measurement of plasma flow across the separatrix, and from this flow to determine the reconnection rate.