Predicting the Heliosphere

在这个项目中，首席研究员(PI)将研究太阳风离子的过热粒子分布。PI计划使用在之前NSF支持下开发的现有模型来预测太阳风中高能中性原子的产生，并将这一结果与IBEX和卡西尼号航天器最近的观测结果进行比较。他还计划研究他推定的超热太阳风离子随机加速的压缩湍流机制是否也能够加速星际介质中的星系宇宙射线，或者在太阳日冕中创造高能粒子的种子群体。为了促进太阳风预测模型的发展，提出者打算调查日光层电流片周围区域的动力学，研究太阳风的质量通量与太阳开放磁场强度之间的关系，并试图协调在主要封闭磁场区域嵌入开放磁通量的各种理论。国际和平研究所预计这项研究将与普通天体物理等离子体和太阳物理学有关。他计划将该项目中开发的新概念纳入密歇根大学的研究生教育项目，以鼓励和培训太阳和日球层物理方面的下一代科学家。

In this project, the Principal Investigator (PI) will investigate the suprathermal particle distributions for solar wind ions. The PI plans to use existing models developed under prior NSF support to predict the production of energetic neutral atoms in the solar wind and to compare this output with recent observations from the IBEX and Cassini spacecraft. He also plans to study whether his presumed 'compressive turbulence' mechanism for stochastic acceleration of suprathermal solar wind ions might also be able to accelerate galactic cosmic rays in the interstellar medium, or to create seed populations of energetic particles in the solar corona. As a means to promote the development of a predictive model for the solar wind, the proposer intends to investigate the dynamics of the region surrounding the heliospheric current sheet, to study the relationship between the mass flux of the solar wind and the strength of the Sun's open magnetic field, and to attempt a reconciliation of various theories for embedding open magnetic flux in primarily closed-field magnetic regions. The PI expects this research to be relevant to general astrophysical plasmas as well as to solar physics. He plans to incorporate the new concepts developed in this project into the graduate education program at the University of Michigan, in order to encourage and train the next generation of scientists in solar and heliospheric physics.