The dynamic variations in the geospace environment driven by solar wind produce space weather that can impact technology in space and on the ground. The impulsive response of the magnetosphere to solar wind shocks is a unique and easily identifiable component of this weather. This investigation is a 3-year data-analysis and modeling effort aimed at providing a better understanding of this fundamental response, the so-called geomagnetic sudden impulse (SI) phenomenon. It will apply newly developed techniques to synthesize global ground magnetometer observations and will also compare these observations with the results of global magnetosphere simulations driven by observed solar wind and interplanetary magnetic field parameters. Special focus will be on "atypical" SI events. The results of this study are expected to provide a more complete and more global (all latitudes and local times) understanding of the fundamental response of Earth's magnetosphere to externally imposed impulsive changes.
While formally submitted by Professor Clauer, the research effort has been conceived and formulated by Dr. Cai, an early career scientist at Virginia Polytechnic, who also will be leading and carrying out most of the work. Results from this research will inform our understanding in ways that improve our ability to model space weather, thereby enabling better predictions of space weather. As such, the results of this research effort are expected to be of direct benefit to society.
