The PI's on this grant have been actively engaged for many years in describing the global magnetospheric field configuration, and its time evolution on the convection time scale, in terms of the MHD equilibrium theory. This theory uses magneto-hydrodynamics (MHD) to describe time-dependent processes such as magnetospheric convection. Basically four lines of research are followed: first, to understand two fundamental magnetospheric processes, namely convection and substorm; second, to develop a reliable numerical code for calculating non-symmetric three-dimensional MHD equilibria; third, to develop quantitative models for the magnetosphere of Uranus; and fourth, to develop three-dimensional Magnetospheric B-field models that include as many physical features as possible, but are designed for more models such as the Rice Convection Model. Specific question to be addressed include how do magnetic boundary conditions for an "open" magnetosphere influence the global equilibrium configuration of the magnetotail and the adiabatic convection process? Do magnetotail equilibria with plasma islands convect according to the standard picture of magnetospheric convection? How does the location of the inner edge of Earth's magnetotail plasma sheet depend on the distribution of the thermal plasma pressure? How does a storm- type sudden commencement re-configure the magnetospheric plasma distribution and the magnetic field? These questions are all fundamental to magnetospheric dynamics. The end result should be a greater understanding and a better model of the magnetosphere.
