Exploring Sources of Magnetospheric Plasma Using the Validated SWMF.

Abstract

The Earth's magnetosphere is a complicated region that is driven by the solar wind and interplanetary magnetic field. Interest in the near-Earth space environment is motivated both by the fact that it acts as a natural plasma laboratory and because of a variety of adverse effects it has on vital man-made technological systems. Several unresolved issues concerning the governing processes of the magnetosphere remain, including the dominant sources of plasma into the system.

This work first expands upon the connection between space weather and anomalous spacecraft behavior by correlating lifetime high energy particle exposure to the likelihood that a spacecraft will experience anomalous behavior. Then, the Space Weather Modeling Framework (SWMF), a powerful numerical code that simulates the space environment, is validated against in-situ measurements of magnetospheric magnetic field and plasma. Such validation improves understanding of simulation results and prepares the code for transition to operational use. Finally, the validated SWMF is used to investigate the sources of magnetospheric plasma. Both idealized and real world simulations are performed, and the veracity of the results are tested using data-model comparisons. The methodology used marries the operational and scientific aspects of magnetospheric research to simultaneously advance the tools used as well as understanding of the space environment.