CAREER: Turbulent Dissipation and Plasma Heating in the Near-Earth Solar Wind

在这个项目中，首席研究员（PI）将利用他已经建立的数值等离子体陀螺仪动力学研究项目，专门为太阳风湍流的综合研究量身定制。他现有的数值模拟需要先进的高性能计算（HPC）资源，并提供独特的能力来回答关于太阳风中动能湍流的本质、耗散的物理机制以及由此产生的等离子体加热的基本和令人信服的问题。该项目将重点关注几个关键的物理问题，包括确定太阳风中发生的导致观测到的湍流能谱的过程，确定太阳风湍流消散的物理机制，湍流波动的能量如何加热太阳风等离子体，以及能量如何在太阳风中的质子，电子和少数离子之间分配。PI的教育和培训计划包括一项计划，以发展具有在空间等离子体物理以及其他科学研究和技术开发领域有效利用高性能计算资源的经验和能力的劳动力。PI将建立“爱荷华州高性能计算暑期学校”，为80名研究生提供为期5年的实践项目课程，使他们能够将高性能计算方法整合到自己的研究工作中。通过为下一代科学家提供并行算法设计和超级计算技能的坚实基础，PI的教育计划将有助于维持美国在技术上具有竞争力的劳动力。

In this project, the Principal Investigator (PI) will exploit his established research program in numerical plasma gyrokinetics, specifically tailored for the comprehensive study of solar wind turbulence. His existing numerical simulations require advanced High Performance Computing (HPC) resources and offer a unique capability to answer fundamental and compelling questions about the nature of kinetic turbulence in the solar wind, the physical mechanisms responsible for its dissipation, and the resulting plasma heating. This project will focus on several key physics questions, including identifying the processes occurring in the solar wind that lead to its observed turbulent energy spectra, determining which physical mechanisms are responsible for dissipating solar wind turbulence, how the energy of turbulent fluctuations heats solar wind plasma, and how energy is partitioned among among the protons, electrons, and minority ion species in the solar wind. The PI's education and training program includes a plan to develop a workforce with the experience and ability to effectively use HPC resources in space plasma physics, as well as in other fields of scientific research and technology development. The PI will establish the "Iowa High Performance Computing Summer School" to offer a hands-on, project-based course to 80 graduate students over 5 years, allowing them to integrate HPC approaches into their own research efforts. By providing this next generation of scientists with a solid foundation in parallel algorithm design and supercomputing skills, the PI's educational program will contribute to sustaining a technologically competitive workforce in the United States.