GEM: Diffuse and Discrete Auroral Electron Precipitation Effects On Magnetosphere-Ionosphere Coupling

极光，通常也被称为北方光，在太阳发出的磁场扰动期间，在地球的天空中显示动态的，明亮的光。极光是一种重要的空间天气现象，它将距离地球更远的太空中发生的事情与我们的大气层联系起来。在磁场干扰的条件下，电子沉淀或下雨到天空中导致这些辉煌的光。沉降的电子是大气层的一种能源，可造成空间天气影响，对社会和国家空间安全造成关切。例如，来自沉淀电子的能量的重新分布可能影响对卫星在大气层中的轨道的预测和/或对航天器重返地球的位置的预测。拟议的研究活动将有助于提高对非常复杂的极光电子沉淀效应的科学认识和建模。研究成果将有助于更广泛的NSF支持的地球空间环境建模（GEM）社区努力，以推进空间天气模型。它使两名代表性不足的女科学家能够从事将对国家空间安全问题产生积极影响的基础研究。该项目将涉及早期职业女性科学家的职业指导和航空航天公司多样化本科生实习生的研究培训，这对于支持下一代空间科学家和工程师的多样性，公平性和包容性至关重要。本提案的目的是更好地了解扩散和离散极光电子沉淀对磁层-电离层电动耦合的作用。科学问题是（SQ 1）扩散极光电子沉淀如何影响极光电离层电导率，高度积分电导，场向电流，电离层和磁层内的电场通过电动MI耦合在磁暴？粒子输运和损失（包括扩散极光降水）的磁和电自洽处理能否解释风暴期间观测到的电导（PFISR）、场向电流（AMPERE）和电场（PFISR、DMSP、货车艾伦探测器）？(SQ2)在磁扰动期间，与局部区域中有代表性的离散极光电子沉淀有关的电离层电导率和高度积分电导率是什么？扩散和局部离散极光电子沉淀的叠加对磁层内电场和粒子输运的影响是什么？为了解决SQ 1，将使用三个模型的耦合：（1）磁、电自洽的Rice对流模型-平衡（RCM-E），计算由于波粒相互作用引起的磁层内粒子输运和降水，（2）超热电子输运（STET）模型，将修改RCM-E沉淀电子通量，包括共轭半球之间的后向散射和多次反射的影响，和（3）从B3 C极光传输模式，计算电导率的高度配置文件的结果。为了解决SQ 2，参数化的代表性高斯极光电子分布将与STET和B3 C模型一起使用，以计算电离层电导率。地面光度计和全天成像数据等观测数据将用于限制综合电子能流，离散极光降水的平均能量将被参数化。将进行模拟，包括电导和潜在的下降与离散极光在一个局部区域重叠的更广泛的扩散极光调查的影响内磁层粒子transport.This奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并已被认为是值得通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估的支持。

The aurora, also commonly known as the Northern lights, display dynamic, brilliant lights in the Earth’s sky during magnetic disturbances that emanate from the sun. The aurora is an important space weather phenomenon that links what is happening much farther away from the Earth in space to our atmosphere. During magnetically disturbed conditions, electrons that precipitate or rain down into the sky cause these brilliant lights. The precipitating electrons are a source of energy to the atmosphere and can cause space weather effects that are of concern to society and national space security. For example, the redistribution of energy from the precipitating electrons can affect predictions of orbits of satellites in the atmosphere and/or predictions of the location of re-entry of spacecraft back to Earth. The proposed research activities will lead to improved scientific understanding and modeling of the very complex auroral electron precipitation effects. The research outcomes will contribute to a broader NSF-supported community effort of Geospace Environment Modeling (GEM) for advancing space weather models. It enables two underrepresented female scientists to engage in fundamental research that will positively impact national space security concerns. The project will involve career mentoring of an early career female scientist and research training of diverse undergraduate student interns at The Aerospace Corporation that are vital for supporting diversity, equity, and inclusion in the next generation of space scientists and engineers. The objective of this proposal is to understand better the role of diffuse and discrete auroral electron precipitation on magnetosphere-ionosphere (MI) electrodynamic coupling. The science questions are (SQ1) How does diffuse auroral electron precipitation affect the auroral ionospheric conductivity, height-integrated conductance, field-aligned currents, and the ionospheric and inner magnetospheric electric field through the electrodynamic MI coupling during magnetic storms? Can a magnetically and electrically self-consistent treatment of the particle transport and loss, including diffuse auroral precipitation, account for observed conductance (PFISR), field-aligned currents (AMPERE), and electric fields (PFISR, DMSP, Van Allen Probes) during storms? (SQ2) What are the ionospheric conductivity and height-integrated conductance associated with representative discrete auroral electron precipitation in localized regions during magnetic disturbances? What are the effects of the superimposed diffuse and localized discrete auroral electron precipitation on the inner magnetospheric electric field and particle transport? To address SQ1, a coupling of three models will be used: (1) the magnetically and electrically self-consistent Rice Convection Model-Equilibrium (RCM-E) that calculates inner magnetospheric particle transport and precipitation due to the effect of wave-particle interactions, (2) the Superthermal Electron Transport (STET) model that will modify the RCM-E precipitating electron fluxes to include the effects of backscatter and multiple reflections between conjugate hemispheres, and (3) results from the B3C auroral transport model that computes altitudinal profiles of conductivity. To address SQ2, parameterized representative Gaussian auroral electron distributions will be used with STET and the B3C model to compute ionospheric conductivity. Observations such as ground-based photometers and All Sky Imaging data will be used to constrain the integrated electron energy flux, and the average energy of the discrete auroral precipitation will be parameterized. Simulations will be performed to include the conductance and potential drops associated with the discrete aurora in a localized region overlapping the broader diffuse aurora to investigate the effects on the inner magnetospheric particle transport.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.