Objetivo
This project is devoted to a joint investigation of the coupling between the terrestrial ionosphere and its surrounding magnetosphere and concentrates mainly on the physical processes which take place in the upper ionosphere (plasma heating, accelerations etc). In the framework of a worldwide programme to achieve a better understanding of solar-terrestrial relations (the International Solar-Terrestrial Programme 1994-1998) this project aims to co-ordinate a European effort for the analysis of multi-source data, i.e. space data provided by the forthcoming INTERBALL/AURORAL probe Russian satellite; ground-based data from northern Scandinavia, namely from the EISCAT incoherent scatter radar facility, supplemented by different sets of ground-based instruments, all sky cameras, riometer imager, coherent radars, and chains of magnetometers. This effort will be closely accompanied by the development of new fluid and kinetic models of the ionosphere-magnetosphere coupling.
During this project, and taking into account the capabilities of the different groups involved, a number of studies of the ionosphere-magnetosphere coupling will be successively carried out: for quiet and stationary geophysical conditions, in the vicinity of sharp spatial gradients, in the auroral arc structures (electrodynamics, particle acceleration, heating); for more spectacular and disturbed phases, in the auroral zone within active auroral forms and stronger field aligned currents, and in the plasmasphere during geomagnetic storms.
It is anticipated that such a combination of new experimental data and recent progress in theory and modelling will lead to the development and testing of new mathematical models of plasma heating, acceleration and transport which can include both thermal and energetic plasma populations, plasma waves, upper atmosphere neutrals and their interactions. The multi-fluid and kinetic descriptions of the plasma particle parameters will be compared to the parameters measured in situ by the satellites, while the 3D thermal plasma parameters, together with the neutral atmosphere data in the same auroral flux tubes, will be measured by the EISCAT incoherent radar and by the new European Scatter Radar in Svalbard (Norway).
Tema(s)
Convocatoria de propuestas
Data not availableRégimen de financiación
Data not availableCoordinador
31029 Toulouse
Francia