GEM: Quantitative Estimates of Plasmaspheric Losses and Implications for Solar Wind-Magnetosphere Coupling

这是一个为期3年的项目，旨在确定等离子体层物质从等离子体层被侵蚀并随后被对流到日侧重连点的影响和影响。具体来说，该项目试图回答以下科学问题：(1)在磁暴期间，等离子体层的损失是如何在向下流入电离层和向日面边界层输送之间分配的；(2)等离子体层物质向日面磁层顶的输送是否会减缓磁重联，这在这些时候可能出现的极地帽势的系统性减少中得到了体现。IMAGE航天器上的EUV仪器拍摄的等离子层全球图像；地球同步航天器冷等离子体密度和流量数据；将结合来自地面测量哨声的密度和总通量管含量以及SuperDARN雷达测量的跨极帽势来解决这些问题。该项目将在许多方面产生更广泛的重大影响。它将支持一名女科学家的研究事业，她将担任该项目的科学PI。本科生将通过既定的REU计划参与研究项目。最后，磁重联是一个普遍的过程，在冷等离子体存在的情况下，磁重联减少的观测验证结果将对许多其他等离子体和天体物理学研究产生影响。

This is a 3-year project to determine the effects and implications of plasmaspheric material being eroded from the plasmasphere and subsequently being convected to the dayside reconnection site. Specifically, the project seeks to answer the following science questions: (1) how plasmaspheric losses are partitioned during magnetic storms between downward flow into the ionosphere and transport to the dayside boundary layers and (2) whether transport of plasmaspheric material to the dayside magnetopause slows magnetic reconnection as manifested in a possible systematic reduction in the polar cap potential at these times. Global images of the plasmasphere from the EUV instrument onboard the IMAGE spacecraft; cold plasma density and flow data from geosynchronous spacecraft; density and total flux tube content derived from ground-based measurements of whistlers and cross polar cap potential measured by the SuperDARN radar will be combined to address these questions.The project will have significant broader impacts in a number of ways. It will support the research career of a female scientist, who will act as the science PI on the project. Undergraduate students will participate in the research project through an established REU program. Finally, magnetic reconnection is a universal process and observational verification that reconnection is reduced in the presence of cold plasma would be a result that would have implications for numerous other plasma- and astrophysical studies.