Location
Yosemite National Park
Start Date
2-12-2014 8:05 AM
End Date
2-12-2014 8:35 AM
Description
Significant progress has been made during the last forty years in identifying the processes that couple the magnetosphere and ionosphere. The progress was achieved with the aid of new measurement techniques, enhanced data coverage, sophisticated global models, and extensive model-data comparisons. It is now clear that the magnetosphere-ionosphere system exhibits a significant amount of spatial structure and rapid temporal variations. This variability is associated with magnetic storms and sub-storms, nonlinear processes that operate over a range of spatial scales, time delays, and feedback mechanisms between the two domains. The variability and resultant structure of the ionosphere can appear in the form of propagating plasma patches, polar wind jets, pulsing of the ion and neutral polar winds, auroral and boundary blobs, and ionization channels associated with sun-aligned polar cap arcs, discrete auroral arcs, and storm-enhanced densities (SEDs). The variability and structure of the thermosphere can appear in the form of propagating atmospheric holes, neutral gas fountains, neutral density patches, transient neutral jets and supersonic winds. Advances that were made during the last forty years in modeling the variability and structure associated with magnetosphere-ionosphere coupling will be presented. Speculation on where the field is headed will also be presented.
Magnetosphere-Ionosphere Coupling: Past, Present, and Future
Yosemite National Park
Significant progress has been made during the last forty years in identifying the processes that couple the magnetosphere and ionosphere. The progress was achieved with the aid of new measurement techniques, enhanced data coverage, sophisticated global models, and extensive model-data comparisons. It is now clear that the magnetosphere-ionosphere system exhibits a significant amount of spatial structure and rapid temporal variations. This variability is associated with magnetic storms and sub-storms, nonlinear processes that operate over a range of spatial scales, time delays, and feedback mechanisms between the two domains. The variability and resultant structure of the ionosphere can appear in the form of propagating plasma patches, polar wind jets, pulsing of the ion and neutral polar winds, auroral and boundary blobs, and ionization channels associated with sun-aligned polar cap arcs, discrete auroral arcs, and storm-enhanced densities (SEDs). The variability and structure of the thermosphere can appear in the form of propagating atmospheric holes, neutral gas fountains, neutral density patches, transient neutral jets and supersonic winds. Advances that were made during the last forty years in modeling the variability and structure associated with magnetosphere-ionosphere coupling will be presented. Speculation on where the field is headed will also be presented.