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]