Award Abstract # 2224108
Collaborative Research: GEM--Impact of Solar Wind Dynamic Pressure Enhancement on the Cusp and Polar Cap Ion Source

NSF Org: AGS
Division of Atmospheric and Geospace Sciences
Recipient: UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, LOS ANGELES
Initial Amendment Date: July 24, 2022
Latest Amendment Date: July 24, 2022
Award Number: 2224108
Award Instrument: Standard Grant
Program Manager: Chia-Lin Huang
chihuang@nsf.gov
 (703)292-7544
AGS
 Division of Atmospheric and Geospace Sciences
GEO
 Directorate for Geosciences
Start Date: October 1, 2022
End Date: September 30, 2026 (Estimated)
Total Intended Award Amount: $587,299.00
Total Awarded Amount to Date: $587,299.00
Funds Obligated to Date: FY 2022 = $587,299.00
History of Investigator:
  • Chih-Ping Wang (Principal Investigator)
    cat@atmos.ucla.edu
Recipient Sponsored Research Office: University of California-Los Angeles
10889 WILSHIRE BLVD STE 700
LOS ANGELES
CA  US  90024-4200
(310)794-0102
Sponsor Congressional District: 36
Primary Place of Performance: University of California-Los Angeles
520 Portola Plaza
LOS ANGELES
CA  US  90095-1565
Primary Place of Performance
Congressional District:
36
Unique Entity Identifier (UEI): RN64EPNH8JC6
Parent UEI:
NSF Program(s): MAGNETOSPHERIC PHYSICS
Primary Program Source: 01002223DB NSF RESEARCH & RELATED ACTIVIT
Program Reference Code(s): 102Z
Program Element Code(s): 575000
Award Agency Code: 4900
Fund Agency Code: 4900
Assistance Listing Number(s): 47.050

ABSTRACT

Outflow ions from the ionosphere are one of the major particle sources for the Earth's space environment. Their dynamics in the region inside the geosynchronous orbits play a crucial role in space weather disturbances, whose effects include satellite drag, disruption in communication and navigation systems, and damaging electric power grids. This project is focused on understanding the physical processes of how one of the drivers from the Sun, solar wind compression of the geospace, generates these outflow ions and their transport. The compression can often be strong and impulsive, but we currently have little knowledge in both observations and simulations on the resulting outflow ions. This project will establish such knowledge, which is urgently needed in the space community to improve our forecast ability for impulsive space weather events. This project supports the education of a graduate student by providing balanced tasks for developing the student's essential research ability in both simulations and data analysis.

The science goal of this project is to understand how solar wind compression impacts outflow ions. The two main objectives and methods are (1) Investigating Cluster satellite data to establish a better observational understanding of temporal variations of the ion fluxes in the cusp and lobes resulting from the compression. (2) Conduct 3D global hybrid simulations to evaluate the physical processes behind the outflow ions caused by the compression. The hybrid simulation is currently the most appropriate tool to take into account the kinetic processes of these outflow ions. The simulations are designed to be compared with the observation results to establish a solid physical understanding. It will also improve our current model specification of the outflow ions that can eventually be incorporated into space weather modeling to achieve a better forecast of the impact of solar wind compression.

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.

PUBLICATIONS PRODUCED AS A RESULT OF THIS RESEARCH

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Wang, ChihPing and Wang, Xueyi and Lin, Yu "Transport and Acceleration of O <sup>+</sup> Ions in Upstream Solar Wind Due To Impact of an IMF Discontinuity: 3D Global Hybrid Simulation" Geophysical Research Letters , v.50 , 2023 https://doi.org/10.1029/2023GL103883 Citation Details

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