STFC Consolidated Grant: Plasma environments in the solar system

这笔综合赠款支持由STFC资助的一项研究太阳系内各种等离子体环境物理的方案。因此，该方案分为四个不同的项目，其目标如下：-项目1旨在通过考虑太阳风-磁层-电离层系统脱钩的现象，确定内部磁层过程在多大程度上干扰太阳风对大规模磁层动力学和随后的空间天气的控制。-项目2将调查月球尘埃的荷电和动力学以及适用于太阳系其他天体(如土星环、彗星)的尘埃等离子体的集体行为。这将通过进一步开发兰开斯特大学开发的3D细胞内粒子模拟来实现，该模拟将包括所有相关的力、分布和场，以完全捕捉物理学。-项目3将利用火星和土星轨道航天器的数据来研究磁通量绳，这是一种与非磁化天体的行星大气损失有关的现象，以了解它们在太阳-行星耦合中的作用。-项目4将通过研究卡西尼号和哈勃太空望远镜在太阳周期活动极端情况下观察到的土星极光发射，确定来自太阳的能量如何影响土星。

This consolidated grant supports a programme of STFC-funded research into the physics of various plasma environments within our solar system. The programme is thus divided into four distinct projects, the aims of which are as follows:- Project 1 aims to determine the extent to which internal magnetospheric processes disrupt the solar wind control of large-scale magnetospheric dynamics and ensuing space weather, by considering phenomena that decouple the solar wind-magnetosphere-ionosphere system.- Project 2 will investigate lunar dust charging and dynamics as well as collective behaviour of dusty plasmas applicable to other bodies in the solar system (e.g. Saturn's rings, comets). This will be done by further development of a 3D particle-in-cell simulation developed at Lancaster that will include all relevant forces, distributions and fields to fully capture the physics. - Project 3 will exploit data from Mars- and Saturn-orbiting spacecraft to study magnetic flux ropes, a phenomenon linked to the loss of planetary atmospheres from unmagnetised bodies, to understand their role in solar-planetary coupling.- Project 4 will identify how energy from the Sun affects Saturn, through the study of Saturn's auroral emissions observed by Cassini and the Hubble Space Telescope under the extremes of solar cycle activity.