Research Highlights

Dong Lin, Wenbin Wang, Mei-Ching Fok, Kevin Pham, Jia Yue, and Haonan Wu, utilize first-principles inner magnetosphere model and ionosphere-thermosphere model to illustrate the thermodynamic coupling effects between the topside ionosphere and the magnetosphere, and compare the relative significance between the heat flux and plasma convection due to electrodynamic coupling. 

Raveena Khan, Sarah Gibson, Roberto Casini, and K. Nagaraju utilize 3D 'Magneto-hydrodynamic Algorithm outside a Sphere' (MAS) models as input to the FORWARD code to model polarization in Ne viii line produced due to resonance scattering, and interpret its modification due to collisions and the magnetic fields through the Hanle effect. 

P. Judge and N.P.M. Kuin ask why and how are entire hydromagnetic structures only intermittently loaded with bright coronal plasma in the Sun? Their findings consolidate the claim that unobserved physical processes are at work which govern the heating of long-lived coronal loops.

R. Casini, A. G. de Wijn, P. G. Judge analyze (Published 2012 September 4) the generation of polarization cross-talk in Stokes polarimeters by atmospheric seeing, and its effects on the noise statistics of spectropolarimetric measurements for both single-beam and dual-beam instruments.

Sarah Gibson et. al. present a numerical study that combines magnetohydrodynamic simulations of turbulence together with forward-modeling synthesis of white- light data via the FORWARD code. Their study is a first step in the process of analyzing and understanding the unprecedented information that The Polarimeter to UNify the Corona and Heliosphere (PUNCH) will provide.

Kun Wu,  and Liying Qian investigate the interactions between medium-scale traveling ionospheric disturbances (MSTIDs) and the equatorial ionization anomaly (EIA), and between MSTIDs and equatorial plasma bubbles (EPBs) on the night of May 13-14, 2013, based on observations from multiple instruments (all-sky imager, digisonde, and global positioning system (GPS)). 

R. Casini, R. Manso Sainz, A. Lopez Ariste, and N. Kaikati extend the spherical tensorial formalism for polarization to the treatment of eletric- and magnetic-multipole transitions of any order, to model the radiation anisotropy affecting the scattering of radiation in an electric-quadrupole transition, and the associated Hanle effect in the presence of a magnetic field.

Chih-Ting Hsu, et al. in this study demonstrate the utility of DART/TIEGCM as an IT OSSE tool, using synthetic observations simulated using a currently planned NASA Geospace Dynamics Constellation (GDC) observing system design. Five sets of OSSEs are carried out to compare the effects of assimilating various combinations of prospective GDC observations (e.g., neutral temperature, neutral wind, neutral composition, atomic oxygen ion density, and ion and electron temperature) during a major geomagnetic storm period of the St Patrick's Day Storm on March 17, 2013. 

Qian Wu, Dong Lin, Wenbing Wang, Liying Qian, Geonhwa Jee, Changsup Lee, and Jeong-han Kim use balloon instrument in the northern hemisphere and ground based instrument in the southern hemisphere to study the conjugacy of the thermospheric winds of high latitudes.