Transcript ppt

Space Plasma
Research at UTA
J. L. Horwitz
Department of Physics
The University of Texas at
Arlington
UTA Space Plasma Group
 Dr. J. L. Horwitz, Professor and
Department Chair
 Dr. Wen Zeng, Post-Doctoral
Researcher
 Ms. Fajer Jaafari, Doctoral
Graduate Student
 Cf. also Dr. Yi-Jiun Su, Assistant
Professor of Physics
 Funded by National Science
Foundation and NASA
Magnetosphere
Magnetosphere
High-latitude Ionosphere
Auroras
POLAR/TIDE/UVI observations of
ionospheric field-aligned flows and
auroral forms at 5000 km
 Stevenson et al.[2001]
employed POLAR
Southern perigee
observations to elicit
relationships of highlatitude O+ field-aligned
flows observed by TIDE
to auroral forms by UVI.
 Typically, auroral
emissions associated with
upflows, dark regions
with down-flows.
POLAR/TIDE Parallel Flows with
Auroral Forms for May 4,1996
 It
is useful to divide the
field-aligned ionospheric
flows according to altitude
region:
 F-region/topside up/down
flows-->300--1000 km
altitude, <1-2 eV, gravitationally-bound, influenced by
frictional ion heating, ambipolar electric fields, soft
electron precipitation-Te,
ionization.
 Energized ion outflows->1200-3 RE, 10-104 eV, conics,
beams, perp. wave heating,
parallel E-fields, etc.
Dynamic Fluid-Kinetic(DyFK) treatment
for ionospheric field-aligned flows
 Estep et al.[1999] and Wu et
al.[1999, 2002] developed a timedependent treatment for treating
field-aligned plasma flow, joining
a fluid treatment for the
ionosphere (120-1100 km) to a
GSK treatment for the upper
altitude regions(800 km up)
 Treating effects of soft electron
precipitation, transverse ion
heating and hot plasma-driven
driven potentials, including a
“pressure cooker” situation.
Wu et al.[1999]
POLAR/TIDE-DyFK Comparisons in Cleft
Ion Fountain Paradigm[Tu et al., 2005]
O+ Field-aligned Velocities
• DyFK simulated
• Polar/TIDE
measured
Dy FK
/T IDE
IMAGE/RPI Electron Densities
DyFK-IMAGE/RPI Comparisons: Simulation
Convection Trajectories[Tu et al., 2004b]
DyFK-IMAGE/RPI-DMSP Profile
3 Comparison [Tu et al., 2004b]
DyFK-IMAGE/RPI-DMSP Profile 2
comparison with and without auroral
processes [Tu et al., 2004b]
Characteristic Ion Distributions in the
Dynamic Auroral Transition Region
Zeng et al.[2005]