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Search indexed NASA NTRS and DOE OSTI research on propulsion, heat transfer, battery materials and energy systems. Follow report and document links to the original sources.

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At least 433 records · Page 24
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2023

Algorithm Theoretical Basis Document For PreMevE 2.0 Model

Man-made satellites operating in medium- and high-altitude Earth orbits are continuously exposed to hazardous space radiation originated from different sources. Among them, one major contributor is the relativistic electron population—with kinetic energies comparable to or larger than their rest energy of 0.511 Megaelectron-volt (MeV)—trapped inside Earth’s outer Van Allen belt. Owing to their high penetration capability, these MeV electrons are difficult to be fully stopped by normal shielding. Particularly, during MeV electron events when electron intensities across the outer belt are greatly elevated to sustaining high levels—up to 10 3 - 10 4 times as observed in the geosynchronous (GEO) orbit and low-Earth-orbits (LEOs), space-borne electronic systems with inadequate hardening are susceptible to deep-dielectric charging and discharging phenomenon caused by those electrons, and thus may suffer severe damages or even stop functioning. Therefore, protecting critical space infrastructures from harsh space weather conditions– including MeV electron events – has high priority for many space sectors, such as the aerospace industry, service providers and government agencies.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2024

Simulating of magnetic reconnection in solar flares

Magnetic reconnection is an astrophysical process where neighboring magnetic field lines running anti-parallel are reconfigured. Observations of solar flares are what pushed for serious research regarding magnetic reconnection as it seemed to be the underlying mechanism. The reconfiguration of the field lines results in an explosive release of energy as magnetic field energy is converted into plasma kinetic and thermal energies. Our work begins with Athena++, an astrophysical magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) simulation code, and an existing magnetic reconnection setup.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2024

Fall SULI Report

This fall, I interned under Fan Guo and Xiaocan Li in T-2 at Los Alamos National Laboratory through the SULI program. I investigated how shock thickness is impacted by collisions between particles in plasmas and how particle acceleration in shocks is impacted by the mass ratio for protons and electrons used in simulations. Both investigations were carried out using the VPIC simulation code. I found that collisions do not meaningfully impact shock width and that higher mass ratios lead to somewhat more electron acceleration in shocks. This write-up is in three parts, the first discussing a description of what I was up to personally throughout the fall, the second discussing the results of the collisional shock study, and the third discussing the results of the high mass ratio shock study.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2022

Effects of polarization-reversed EMIC waves on the ring current dynamics

Electromagnetic ion cyclotron (EMIC) waves are widely believed to play an important role in influencing the radiation belt and ring current dynamics. Most studies have investigated the effects or characteristics of EMIC waves by assuming their left-handed polarization. However, recent studies have found that the reversal of polarization, which occurs at higher latitudes along the wave propagation path, can change the wave-induced pitch angle diffusion coefficients. Whether such a polarization reversal can influence the global ring current dynamics remains unknown. In this study, we investigate the ring current dynamics and proton precipitation loss in association with polarization-reversed EMIC waves by using the ring current–atmosphere interactions model (RAM). The results indicate that the polarization reversal of H-band EMIC waves can truly decrease the scattering rates of protons of 10 to 50 keV or >100 keV in comparison with the scenario in which the EMIC waves are considered purely left-handed polarized. Additionally, the global ring current intensity and proton precipitation may be slightly affected by the polarization reversal, especially during prestorm time and the recovery phase, but the effects are not large during the main phase. This is probably because the H-band EMIC waves contribute to the proton scattering loss primarily at E < 10 keV, an energy range that is not strongly affected by the polarization reversal.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2021

Do Impulsive Solar-Energetic-Electron (SEE) Events Drive High-Voltage Charging Events on the Nightside of the Moon?

When the Earth’s moon is in the supersonic solar wind, the darkside of the Moon and the lunar plasma wake can be very dangerous charging environments. In the absence of photoelectron emission (dark) and in the absence of cool plasma (wake), the emission or collection of charge to reduce electrical potentials is difficult. Unique extreme charging events may occur during impulsive solar-energetic-electron (SEE) events when the lunar wake is dominated by relativistic electrons, with the potential to charge and differentially charge objects on and above the lunar surface to very-high negative electrical potentials. In this report the geometry of the magnetic connections from the Sun to the lunar nightside are explored; these magnetic connections are the pathways for SEEs from the Sun. Rudimentary charging calculations for objects in the relativistic-electron environment of the lunar wake are performed. To enable these charging calculations, secondary-electron yields for impacts by relativistic electrons are derived. Needed lunar electrical-grounding precautions for SEE events are discussed. Calls are made 1) for future dynamic simulations of the plasma wake in the presence of time-varying SEE-event relativistic electrons and time-varying solar-wind magnetic-field orientations and 2) for future charging calculations in the relativistic-electron wake environment and on the darkside lunar surface.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2022

Association of Mesoscale Auroral Structures and Breakups With Energetic Particle Injections at Geosynchronous Orbit

Geomagnetic substorms are associated with characteristic energetic particle injection signatures at geosynchronous orbit that are often dispersionless in both electrons and ions near the magnetic local time sector of auroral onset locations and are dispersed farther away from this region. Although the precise mechanism responsible for the coherent injection signatures at geosynchronous orbit have been the topic on considerable ongoing debate for decades, recent work on bursty bulk flows (BBFs) in the tail have led to the hypothesis that they may be the result of multiple, overlapping flow bursts penetrating into the inner magnetosphere from more distant downtail reconnection sites. Since auroral streamers are thought to be ionospheric signatures of BBFs in the tail, they can be used as proxies for testing this hypothesis. Using high resolution auroral imagery from the POLAR/VIS instrument combined with multi-spacecraft observations of energetic particle injections at geosynchronous orbit, we examine the association of mesoscale auroral structures with particle injection signatures over many hours during the 9 November 1998 storm. We find that the explosive types of auroral activations, such as pseudo-breakups and substorm onset breakups, are associated with the more intense and well-defined dispersed injection signatures, while intervals of isolated streamer activity appear to be associated with smaller dispersed “injectionlet” signatures. Furthermore, intervals of sustained, intense, and late expansion phase/recovery phase streamer activity appear to be associated with sustained elevated dispersed particle fluxes. These results are consistent with the hypothesis that it is the overlapping effects of sustained, intense multiple flow bursts penetrating toward the Earth that result in classical substorm particle injection signatures at geosynchronous orbit. However, it is also suggested that torches/omega-band tongues are the prime fate of braking isolated flow bursts (streamers) rather than the development of breakups, bulges, and substorm current wedge formation. A statistical analysis is presented showing that 93% of the observed torches evolved from streamers, 93% of streamers arriving in the equatorward regions of the bulge led to torches, 10.5% of such streamers led to breakups (either pseudo-breakups or substorm onsets), and only 3.5% of such streamers led to substorm onsets.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2023

Can strong substorm-associated MeV electron injections be an important cause of large radiation belt enhancements?

It has become well-established that strong outer radiation belt enhancements are due to wave-driven electron energization by whistler-mode chorus waves. However, in this study, we examine strong MeV electron injections on 10 July 2019 and find substantial evidence that such injections may be a crucial contributor to outer radiation belt enhancement events. For such an examination, it is essential to precisely separate temporal flux changes from spatial variations observed as Van Allen Probes move along their orbits. Employing a new “hourly snapshot” analysis approach, we discover unprecedented details of electron flux evolutions that suggest that for this event, the outer belt enhancement was not continuous but instead intermittent, mostly composed of 4 large discrete injection-driven flux increases. The injections appear as sharp flux increases when observed near apogee. Otherwise, by comparing hourly snapshots for different times, we infer injections and infer temporally stable fluxes between injections, despite strong and continuous chorus emission. The fast and intermittent electron flux growth successively extending earthwards implies cumulative outer belt enhancement via a series of repetitive inward transport associated with injection-induced electric fields.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2024

Oblique instability of quasi-parallel whistler waves in the presence of cold and warm electron populations

Whistler waves propagating nearly parallel to the ambient magnetic field experience a nonlinear instability due to transverse currents when the background plasma has a population of sufficiently low energy electrons. Intriguingly, this nonlinear process may generate oblique electrostatic waves, including whistlers near the resonance cone with properties resembling oblique chorus waves in the Earth’s magnetosphere. Focusing on the generation of oblique whistlers, earlier analysis of the instability is extended here to the case where low-energy background plasma consists of both a “cold” population with energy of a few eV and a “warm” electron component with energy of the order of 100 eV. This is motivated by spacecraft observations in the Earth’s magnetosphere where oblique chorus waves were shown to interact resonantly with the warm electrons. The main new results are: 1) the instability producing oblique electrostatic waves is sensitive to the shape of the electron distribution at low energies. In the whistler range of frequencies, two distinct peaks in the growth rate are typically present for the model considered: a peak associated with the warm electron population at relatively low wavenumbers and a peak associated with the cold electron population at relatively high wavenumbers; 2) overall, the instability producing oblique whistler waves near the resonance cone persists (with a reduced growth rate) even in the cases where the temperature of the cold population is relatively high, including cases where cold population is absent and only the warm population is included; 3) particle-in-cell simulations show that the instability leads to heating of the background plasma and formation of characteristic plateau and beam features in the parallel electron distribution function in the range of energies resonant with the instability. The plateau/beam features have been previously detected in spacecraft observations of oblique chorus waves. However, they have been attributed to external sources and have been proposed to be the mechanism generating oblique chorus. In the present scenario, the causality link is reversed and the instability generating oblique whistler waves is shown to be a possible mechanism for formation of the plateau and beam features.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2016

A SURVEY OF MAGNETIC WAVES EXCITED BY NEWBORN INTERSTELLAR He{sup +} OBSERVED BY THE ACE SPACECRAFT AT 1 au

We report observations of low-frequency waves at 1 au by the magnetic field instrument on the Advanced Composition Explorer ( ACE /MAG) and show evidence that they arise due to newborn interstellar pickup He{sup +}. Twenty-five events are studied. They possess the generally predicted attributes: spacecraft-frame frequencies slightly greater than the He{sup +} cyclotron frequency, left-hand polarization in the spacecraft frame, and transverse fluctuations with minimum variance directions that are quasi-parallel to the mean magnetic field. Their occurrence spans the first 18 years of ACE operations, with no more than 3 such observations in any given year. Thus, the events are relatively rare. As with past observations by the Ulysses and Voyager spacecraft, we argue that the waves are seen only when the background turbulence is sufficiently weak as to allow for the slow accumulation of wave energy over many hours.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗