Please mark your calendars to attend the next presentation of AOSS Departmental 2009 Fall Seminar Series, the Ralph B. Baldwin Lecture on Thursday, October 8, 2009 from 4:00 pm - 5:00 pm in 2246 Space Research Building.

Dr. Alex Glocer
Postdoctoral Fellow, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center

Modeling the Space Environment System: Magnetospheric Composition, Radiation Belts, and Mercury’s Magnetosphere

The space environment is a complex system defined by regions of differing scales, characteristic energies, and physical processes. We utilize several models running together under the Space Weather Modeling Framework (SWMF) to study this highly interconnected system. The methodology and results will be presented for three focused topics: First, we examine the impact of the global system on the radiation belts by integrating the Fok Radiation Belt Environment model (RBE) into the SWMF. The radiation belt model solves the convection-diffusion equation of the plasma in the range of 10keV to a few MeV. In the SWMF, the BATS-R-US magnetosphere model provides the time dependent magnetic field by efficiently tracing the closed magnetic field lines and passing the geometrical and field strength information to RBE at a regular cadence. We use this coupled model to explore radiation belt enhancements observed by the Akebono satellite on September 4, 2008. Our second focus is on ionospheric outflow. We have developed the the Polar Wind Outflow Model (PWOM), and coupled it to various components of the SWMF. The PWOM solves the fieldaligned gyro-tropic transport equations for H+ , He+ , O+ along several field-lines in the altitude range of 250 km to a few Earth Radii. The resulting outflows are put into the multi-fluid and multi-species BATS-R-US model of the global magnetosphere where they can impact the composition and dynamics. The resulting effect on geomagnetic indices, and specific satellite measurements are explored. The final topic we will consider is the interaction of Mercury’s magnetosphere with the active solar wind. NASA’s MESSENGER mission will enter its orbit about Mercury in 2011 and make observations of this magnetosphere during solar maximum when encounters with Interplanetary Coronal Mass Ejections (ICMEs) are most likely. We use the BATS-R-US model, modified to simulate Mercury’s magnetosphere, to investigate the response of this small magnetosphere to ICME conditions.

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