Controlled Whistler Mode Wave Injection Experiments with the High Altitude Auroral Research Program (HAARP) Facility

由太阳活动以复杂的方式驱动的太空天气过程会对我们在太空和地面上的基础设施产生不利影响。该项目资助使用位于阿拉斯加的HAARP设施进行空间科学实验，以帮助我们了解空间天气动力学。具体来说，该项目旨在了解发射到太空的无线电波在被高能粒子放大后是如何变得更强的。阿拉斯加的HAARP设施是一个独特的研究设施，也是世界上唯一一个进行此类实验的设施。该项目将支持本科生和研究生学习空间科学，并前往阿拉斯加进行开创性实验。高中学生也将参与建造硬件来进行实地实验。该项目促进国家重点领域的科学进步，支持科学和工程领域的教育和多样性。该项目旨在量化和理解哨声模式波在非线性相互作用中产生附加波的过程。由于所有类型的哨声模波都是磁层中辐射带动力学的关键驱动因素，因此了解新波产生的时间、地点和方式对于确保辐射带通量和空间天气现象模型的准确性是必要的。该项目包括ELF/VLF磁层波注入实验，将在美国国家科学基金会支持的位于阿拉斯加加科纳的高海拔极光研究计划（HAARP）设施进行。HAARP HF加热器是目前唯一可用的受控ELF/VLF波源，可供科学家用于磁层波注入。在HAARP设施100公里范围内的ELF/VLF波段的地面观测将用于严格研究内磁层的非线性哨声模式现象，并获得有价值的d区诊断数据。首席研究员（PI）在他的博士论文中就有这些类型的实验的直接经验，并参加了以前的HAARP设施活动。实验利用HAARP设施的独特功能和从过去的实验中获得的知识来测试和扩展非线性哨声模波相互作用的最新理论。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Space weather processes, driven in complicated ways by activity on the sun, can adversely affect our infrastructure in space and on the ground. This project funds the use of the HAARP facility in Alaska for space science experiments that can help us understand space weather dynamics. Specifically, the project seeks to understand how some radio waves launched into space come back stronger after they are amplified by energetic particles. The HAARP facility in Alaska is a unique research facility and the only one worldwide to perform such experiments. This project will support undergraduate and graduate students learning about space sciences and traveling to Alaska to perform pioneering experiments. High school students will also be involved in building hardware to conduct field experiments. The project promotes the progress of science in key areas of national interest and supports education and diversity in science and engineering fields. The project seeks to quantify and understand the process of whistler mode waves generating additional waves in nonlinear interactions. Since whistler mode waves of all types are a critical driver of radiation belt dynamics in the magnetosphere, knowing when, where, and how new waves are generated is necessary for assuring that models of radiation belt fluxes and space weather phenomena are accurate. The project involves ELF/VLF magnetospheric wave injection experiments to be performed at the NSF-supported High Altitude Auroral Research Program (HAARP) facility in Gakona, Alaska. The HAARP HF heater is currently the only available source of controlled ELF/VLF waves available to scientists for magnetospheric wave injection. Ground observations in the ELF/VLF band within 100 km of the HAARP facility will be used to rigorously investigate nonlinear whistler mode phenomena in the inner magnetosphere, and valuable D-region diagnostic data will also be obtained. The principal investigator (PI) has direct experience with these types of experiments going back to his doctoral thesis and has participated in previous HAARP facility campaigns. The experiments leverage the unique capabilities of the HAARP facility and knowledge gained from past experiments to test and expand recent theories on nonlinear whistler mode wave interactions.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.