GEM: Monitoring the Magnetosphere from Nightside Precipitation Characteristics, and Various Collaborations

在这个项目中，将开发一个系统，通过从DMSP航天器上的探测器测量的附近高能粒子降水中提取地球物理学上重要的信息，来监测磁层的状态。在这项工作之前，在白天降水数据上成功完成了类似的工作，并被空间科学界广泛利用。该系统将使用定量算法实现自动化，并将确定(1)“零能量”对流边界（通常是等离子体暂停），(2)电子平均能量与纬度的大尺度梯度从正变为负的点（主等离子体片的开始），(3)离子高能沉淀的截止点（尾电流片的开始），(4)大于35kev电子的稳定捕获边界（也是尾电流片开始的标志），以及其他各种具有地球物理意义的参数。这些不同的参数将被研究，以产生比目前的指数（如Kp和AE）更准确地用来表征磁层的指数。

In this project, a system will be developed to monitor the state of the magnetosphere by abstracting geophysically significant information from nighside energetic particle precipitation measured by detectors on the DMSP spacecraft. This work follows similar work successfully accomplished on dayside precipitation data and quite extensively utilized by the space science community. The system will be automated using quantitative algorithms and will determine (1) the "zero energy" convection boundary (often the plasma pause), (2) the point where the large scale gradient in the electron average energy vs latitude changes from positive to negative (the start of the main plasma sheet), (3) the ion high- energy precipitation cutoff, (the start of the tail current sheet), (4) the stable trapping boundary for greater that 35 KeV electrons (also a marker for the start of the tail current sheet), as well as a variety of other parameters of geophysical significance. These various parameters will be investigated to produce indices which may be used to characterize the magnetosphere with more accuracy than do the present indices such as Kp and AE.