Search Publications
Particle Dynamics in the Earth's Radiation Belts: Review of Current Research and Open Questions
Li, X.; Ukhorskiy, A. Y.; Fennell, J. F. +4 more
The past decade transformed our observational understanding of energetic particle processes in near-Earth space. An unprecedented suite of observational systems was in operation including the Van Allen Probes, Arase, Magnetospheric Multiscale, Time History of Events and Macroscale Interactions during Substorms, Cluster, GPS, GOES, and Los Alamos N…
Atmospheric Escape Processes and Planetary Atmospheric Evolution
Simon Wedlund, C.; Maggiolo, R.; Cessateur, G. +17 more
The habitability of the surface of any planet is determined by a complex evolution of its interior, surface, and atmosphere. The electromagnetic and particle radiation of stars drive thermal, chemical, and physical alteration of planetary atmospheres, including escape. Many known extrasolar planets experience vastly different stellar environments …
Magnetic Reconnection in the Space Sciences: Past, Present, and Future
Hesse, M.; Cassak, P. A.
Magnetic reconnection converts, often explosively, stored magnetic energy to particle energy in space and in the laboratory. Through processes operating on length scales that are tiny, it facilitates energy conversion over dimensions of, in some cases, hundreds of Earth radii. In addition, it is the mechanism behind large current disruptions in fu…
Radial Evolution of Coronal Mass Ejections Between MESSENGER, Venus Express, STEREO, and L1: Catalog and Analysis
Lugaz, N.; Winslow, R. M.; Salman, T. M.
Our knowledge of the properties of coronal mass ejections (CMEs) in the inner heliosphere is constrained by the relative lack of plasma observations between the Sun and 1 AU. In this work, we present a comprehensive catalog of 47 CMEs measured in situ measurements by two or more radially aligned spacecraft (MESSENGER, Venus Express, STEREO, Wind/A…
Mars' Ionopause: A Matter of Pressures
Holmstrom, Mats; Sánchez-Cano, Beatriz; Mayyasi, Majd +8 more
This study assesses under what circumstances the Martian ionopause is formed on the dayside, both in regions where there are strong crustal magnetic fields and areas where these fields are small (<30 nT). Multiple data sets from three MAVEN dayside deep dip campaigns are utilized between periapsis and 600-1,000 km, as well as solar wind observa…
Evolution of a Long-Duration Coronal Mass Ejection and Its Sheath Region Between Mercury and Earth on 9-14 July 2013
Farrugia, C. J.; Lugaz, N.; Winslow, R. M.
Using in situ measurements and remote-sensing observations, we study a coronal mass ejection (CME) that left the Sun on 9 July 2013 and impacted both Mercury and Earth while the planets were in radial alignment (within 3∘). The CME had an initial speed as measured by coronagraphs of 580 ± 20 km/s, an inferred speed at Mercury of 580 ± 30 km/s, and…
20 Years of ACE Data: How Superposed Epoch Analyses Reveal Generic Features in Interplanetary CME Profiles
Auchère, F.; Démoulin, P.; Dasso, S. +4 more
Interplanetary coronal mass ejections (ICMEs) are magnetic structures propagating from the Sun's corona to the interplanetary medium. With over 20 years of observations at the L1 libration point, ACE offers hundreds of ICMEs detected at different times during several solar cycles and with different features such as the propagation speed. We invest…
Magnetic Reconnection Inside a Flux Rope Induced by Kelvin-Helmholtz Vortices
Liu, Y.; Russell, C. T.; Escoubet, C. P. +23 more
On 5 May 2017, MMS observed a crater-type flux rope on the dawnside tailward magnetopause with fluctuations. The boundary-normal analysis shows that the fluctuations can be attributed to nonlinear Kelvin-Helmholtz (KH) waves. Reconnection signatures such as flow reversals and Joule dissipation were identified at the leading and trailing edges of t…
The Influence of Spacecraft Charging on Low-Energy Ion Measurements Made by RPC-ICA on Rosetta
Stenberg Wieser, Gabriella; Wieser, Martin; Eriksson, Anders +2 more
Spacecraft charging is problematic for low-energy plasma measurements. The charged particles are attracted to or repelled from the charged spacecraft, affecting both the energy and direction of travel of the particles. The Ion Composition Analyzer (RPC-ICA) on board the Rosetta spacecraft is suffering from this effect. RPC-ICA was measuring positi…
Reconnection- and Dipolarization-Driven Auroral Dawn Storms and Injections
Bonfond, B.; Vogt, M. F.; Mauk, B. H. +8 more
Jupiter displays many distinct auroral structures, among which auroral dawn storms and auroral injections are often observed contemporaneously. However, it is unclear if the contemporaneous nature of the observations is a coincidence or part of an underlying physical connection. We show six clear examples from a recent Hubble Space Telescope campa…