Engineering topics

Phan, T.-D.

Publications and source records attributed to Phan, T.-D..

4 records

NASA NTRS2016

Comparison of Magnetospheric Multiscale Ion Jet Signatures with Predicted Reconnection Site Locations at the Magnetopause

Magnetic reconnection at the Earths magnetopause is the primary process by which solar wind plasma and energy gains access to the magnetosphere. One indication that magnetic reconnection is occurring is the observation of accelerated plasma as a jet tangential to the magnetopause. The direction of ion jets along the magnetopause surface as observed by the Fast Plasma Instrument (FPI) and the Hot Plasma Composition Analyzer (HPCA) instrument on board the recently launched Magnetospheric Multiscale (MMS) set of spacecraft is examined. For those cases where ion jets are clearly discerned, the direction of origin compares well statistically with the predicted location of magnetic reconnection using convected solar wind observations in conjunction with the Maximum Magnetic Shear model.

Petrinec, S. M.↗

NASA NTRS2011

ARTEMIS Science Objectives

NASA's two spacecraft ARTEMIS mission will address both heliospheric and planetary research questions, first while in orbit about the Earth with the Moon and subsequently while in orbit about the Moon. Heliospheric topics include the structure of the Earth's magnetotail; reconnection, particle acceleration, and turbulence in the Earth's magnetosphere, at the bow shock, and in the solar wind; and the formation and structure of the lunar wake. Planetary topics include the lunar exosphere and its relationship to the composition of the lunar surface, the effects of electric fields on dust in the exosphere, internal structure of the Moon, and the lunar crustal magnetic field. This paper describes the expected contributions of ARTEMIS to these baseline scientific objectives.

Sibeck, D. G.↗

NASA NTRS1993

Double-polytropic closure in the magentosheath

The magnetosheath plasma is usually neither isotropic nor adiabatic. This paper contains an attempt to decribe its thermodynamic properties in terms of two polytropic laws, p(sub perpendicular)/rho B(exp gamma(sub perpendicular)-1) = C(sub perpendicular) and p(sub parallel)B(exp gamma(sub parallel)-1)/rho(exp gamma(sub parallel)) = C(sub parallel), such that for gamma(sub perpendicular) = 2, gamma(sub parallel) = 3 the usual Chew-Goldberger-Low double-adiabatic expressions are recovered and for gamma(sub perpendicular) = 1, gamma(sub parallel) = 1 double-isothermal conditions are obtained. Using data from the AMPTE/IRM spacecraft, we show that the subsolar magnetosheath plasma may be better described by the double-polytropic laws than by the mirror instability threshold, in particular in the low beta region near the magnetopause. The inferred polytropic exponents vary from event to event but are typically in the ranges of gamma(sub perpendicular) = 0.94 +/- 0.10 and gamma(sub parallel) = 1.14 +/- 0.13 for the 29 cases we have examined.

Hau, L.-N.↗

NASA NTRS1992

Magnetic field maxima in the low latitude boundary layer

The magnetic field often exhibits a maximum in the earth's low-latitude boundary layer. Examples of this behavior are shown using data from the AMPTE/IRM spacecraft, and it is argued that two fundamentally distinct causes exist for the excess field: (1) a depression, within the layer, of the population of medium-energy ions of magnetospheric origin and (2) field curvature effects associated with undulations of the magnetopause itself.

Sonnerup, B.↗