US-China Planning Visit: Understanding earth's Solar Wind-Magnetosphere-Ionosphere system from the Antarctic

美国国家科学基金会的资金将支持计划中的访问，以促进和发展与上海中国极地研究所刘永华博士和他的研究小组的新合作。合作的重点是结合中国集团和弗吉尼亚理工大学空间科学与工程研究中心在南极偏远地区运营的自主空间气象站获得的数据。这些观测站位于南极的协同位置，以便能够进行以下研究：1)太阳风产生的能量通过空间和电离层电流系统的相关发展而耦合到磁层和电离层；2)在高纬度电离层产生密度不规则，从而扰乱通信和导航系统；3)使空间中的带电粒子通电，从而损坏卫星电子设备。太阳风-磁层-电离层是一个复杂的自然系统，可以影响到人类的各种技术。预测和减轻这种影响是美国国家空间天气计划的一个主要目标。然而，由于缺乏足够的数据覆盖面来验证全球模型，特别是在南半球，这一目标的实现受到了阻碍。弗吉尼亚理工学院最近获得了部署在南极纬度链上的自主空间气象站的数据，这使得对太阳-地球系统的新调查成为可能。中国是积极参与南极计划的主要国家之一，他正在南极东部运营空间站，通过增加一个纵向链来补充弗吉尼亚理工大学的空间站。考虑到南极极端的天气和物流条件，国际合作使使用联合站点的数据进行更有效和更广泛的调查成为可能。弗吉尼亚理工学院和中国的监测站一起监测与太阳风相互作用的地磁线与白天高纬度电离层相交的区域，从而能够研究从太阳风到磁层和电离层的能量耦合过程。合作工作将极大地扩大仅靠任何一组数据无法完成的科学调查。

NSF funding will support planning visits to promote and develop a new collaboration with Dr. Yonghua Liu and his research group at the Polar Research Institute of China, in Shanghai. The collaboration centers on the combination of data obtained from autonomous space weather stations operated in remote polar Antarctic locations by the Chinese group and the Virginia Tech Center for Space Science and Engineering Research. The stations are at synergistic locations in the Antarctic to enable investigations of: 1) the coupling of energy from the solar wind to the magnetosphere and ionosphere through the associated development of electrical current systems in space and in the ionosphere; 2) the production of density irregularities in the high latitude ionosphere that can disrupt communication and navigation systems and 3) the energization of charged particles in space that can damage satellite electronics. The Solar Wind-Magnetosphere-Ionosphere is a complex natural system that can impact a variety of human technology. To forecast and mitigate that impact is a major goal of the U. S. National Space Weather Program. Achieving this goal is hampered, however, by the lack of sufficient data coverage to validate global models, particularly in the southern hemisphere. The recent availability of data from autonomous space weather stations deployed along a latitude chain in the Antarctic by Virginia Tech enables new investigations of the Sun-Earth system. China, one of the leading countries actively involved in the Antarctic programs, is operating stations in the East Antarctic that complement the Virginia Tech stations by adding a longitudinal chain. Considering the extreme conditions of weather and logistics in the Antarctic, international collaboration enables more efficient and more wide-ranging investigations using data from the combined stations. The Virginia Tech and Chinese stations together monitor the region where the geomagnetic field lines that interact with the solar wind intersect the dayside high latitude ionosphere, thus enabling investigation of the processes that couple energy from the solar wind to the magnetosphere and ionosphere. The collaborative work will greatly expand scientific investigations that could not be accomplished by either data set alone.