Experimental Space Plasma

The solar wind is a plasma embedded in a magnetic field that flows continuously from the sun.  Some regions of the sun, called "coronal holes" often have higher velocity solar wind than other regions.  In addition the sun sometimes emits strong bursts of plasma and magnetic field, called Coronal Mass Ejections (CME). If the CME encounters the earth, it can lead to a geomagnetic storm.  A Stream Interaction Region (SIR) is an interaction between a high speed  solar wind flow and lower speed flow, that can result in a shock.  If the same structure is observed for multiple solar rotations, it is a "Corotating" Interaction Region (CIR).  These structures can also cause geomagentic storms. The Heliospheric Current sheet is the boundary between magnetic field lines from the Sun's northern hemisphere and the Sun's southern hemisphere. The occurence of CMEs and CIRs varies with solar activity.  This group studies the formation, evolution, and effects of solar wind structures including CMEs, SIRs and CIRs and the Heliospheric Current Sheet. These studies use data from multiple spacecraft including STEREO, ACE, and Wind.

Recent Publications

• Lugaz, N., Farrugia, C. J., Winslow, R. M., Al-Haddad, N., Galvin, A. B., Nieves-Chinchilla, T., Lee, C. O., & Janvier, M. (2018). On the Spatial Coherence of Magnetic Ejecta: Measurements of Coronal Mass Ejections by Multiple Spacecraft Longitudinally Separated by 0.01 au. The Astrophysical Journal Letters, 864(1), L7. https://doi.org/10.3847/2041-8213/aad9f4
• L K Jian, C T Russell, J G Luhmann, and A B Galvin. (2018). STEREO Observations of Interplanetary Coronal Mass Ejections in 2007-2016, 855(2), 114. https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/aab189
• Lugaz, N., Farrugia, C. J., Winslow, R. M., Small, C. R., Manion, T., & Savani, N. P. (2017). Importance of CME Radial Expansion on the Ability of Slow CMEs to Drive Shocks. The Astrophysical Journal, 848(2), 75. https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/aa8ef9
• Peng, J., Liu, Y. C. M., Huang, J., Li, H., Klecker, B., Galvin, A. B., Simunac, K., Farrugia, C., Jian, L. K., Liu, Y., & Zhang, J. (2017). In Situ Analysis of Heliospheric Current Sheet Propagation. Journal of Geophysical Research (Space Physics), 122(1), 9803–9814. https://doi.org/10.1002/2017JA024194
• Vasquez, B. J., Farrugia, C. J., Simunac, K. D. C., Galvin, A. B., & Berdichevsky, D. B. (2017). Concerning the helium-to-hydrogen number density ratio in very slow ejecta and winds near solar minimum. Journal of Geophysical Research (Space Physics), 122(2), 1487–1512. https://doi.org/10.1002/2016JA023636
• Winslow, R. M., Philpott, L., Paty, C. S., Lugaz, N., Schwadron, N. A., Johnson, C. L., & Korth, H. (2017). Statistical study of ICME effects on Mercury's magnetospheric boundaries and northern cusp region from MESSENGER. Journal of Geophysical Research (Space Physics), 122(5), 4960–4975. https://doi.org/10.1002/2016JA023548

The solar wind itself is an active environment of plasma wave generation and turbulence. How waves generated, and how the flow energy is converted to heat, and what affects these waves have are all active areas of research. Solar wind studies are done using data from many spacecraft including Voyager, Ullyses, ACE, Wind and STEREO.

Recent Publications

• Hollick, S. J., Smith, C. W., Pine, Z. B., Argall, M. R., Joyce, C. J., Isenberg, P. A., Vasquez, B. J., Schwadron, N. A., Sokół, J. M., Bzowski, M., & Kubiak, M. A. (2018). Magnetic Waves Excited by Newborn Interstellar Pickup Ions Measured by the Voyager Spacecraft from 1 to 45 au. I. Wave Properties. The Astrophysical Journal, 863(1), 75. https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/aac83b
• Hollick, S. J., Smith, C. W., Pine, Z. B., Argall, M. R., Joyce, C. J., Isenberg, P. A., Vasquez, B. J., Schwadron, N. A., Sokół, J. M., Bzowski, M., & Kubiak, M. A. (2018). Magnetic Waves Excited by Newborn Interstellar Pickup Ions Measured by the Voyager Spacecraft from 1 to 45 au. II. Instability and Turbulence Analyses. The Astrophysical Journal, 863(1), 76. https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/aac839
• Smith, C. W., Vasquez, B. J., Coburn, J. T., Forman, M. A., & Stawarz, J. E. (2018). Correlation Scales of the Turbulent Cascade at 1 au. The Astrophysical Journal, 858(1), 21. https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/aabb00
• Cannon, B. E., Smith, C. W., Isenberg, P. A., Vasquez, B. J., Joyce, C. J., Murphy, N., & Nuno, R. G. (2017). Listing of 502 Times When the Ulysses Magnetic Fields Instrument Observed Waves Due to Newborn Interstellar Pickup Protons. The Astrophysical Journal, 840(1), 13. https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/aa6c2f

At energies higher than the bulk solar wind energy, interplanetary space is also filled with particle radiation that both comes from the sun, called Solar Energetic Particles (SEP), and that comes from outside the solar system, called Galactic Cosmic Rays (GCR). This group studies how these particles are accelerated, how they vary with solar activity and the solar cycle, and what their effects are on planets and moons, as well as on humans in space. These studies include data from a variety of sources including ACE upstream from the Earth, Messenger at Mercury, and Lunar Reconnaisance Orbiter at the moon.

Recent Publications

• Winslow, R. M., Schwadron, N. A., Lugaz, N., Guo, J., Joyce, C. J., Jordan, A. P., Wilson, J. K., Spence, H. E., Lawrence, D. J., Wimmer-Schweingruber, R. F., & Mays, M. L. (2018). Opening a Window on ICME-driven GCR Modulation in the Inner Solar System. The Astrophysical Journal, 856(2), 139. https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/aab098
• Jordan, A. P., Stubbs, T. J., Wilson, J. K., Schwadron, N. A., & Spence, H. E. (2018). The possible contribution of dielectric breakdown to space weathering on Phobos. Advances in Space Research, 62(8), 2187–2198. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.asr.2018.01.029
• Schwadron, N. A., Cooper, J. F., Desai, M., Downs, C., Gorby, M., Jordan, A. P., Joyce, C. J., Kozarev, K., Linker, J. A., Mikíc, Z., Riley, P., Spence, H. E., Török, T., Townsend, L. W., Wilson, J. K., & Zeitlin, C. (2017). Particle Radiation Sources, Propagation and Interactions in Deep Space, at Earth, the Moon, Mars, and Beyond: Examples of Radiation Interactions and Effects. Space Science Reviews, 212(3), 1069–1106. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11214-017-0381-5
• Jordan, A. P., Wilson, J. K., Schwadron, N. A., Spence, H. E., & Petro, N. E. (2018). A Framework to Determine the History of the Moon's Polar Ice. Lunar Polar Volatiles, 2087, 5003.
• Schwadron, N. A., Rahmanifard, F., Wilson, J., Jordan, A. P., Spence, H. E., Joyce, C. J., et al. (2018). Update on the Worsening Particle Radiation Environment Observed by CRaTER and Implications for Future Human Deep-Space Exploration. Space Weather, 16(3), 289–303. https://doi.org/10.1002/2017SW001803

The solar wind, moving away from the sun, creates the bubble known as the heliosphere. At the outer boundary, the solar wind interacts with the interstellar medium. The solar wind first slows down at the "termination shock" where its speed changes from supersonic to subsonic, and then reaches the boundary of the heliosphere, called the heliopause, where the solar wind is in pressure balance with the interstellar medium. In recent years, this boundary has been studied both in situ, using measurements from Voyager, and remotely, using observations of interstellar neutral atoms, from the IBEX mission.

Recent Publications

• Schwadron, N. A., & Bzowski, M. (2018). The Heliosphere Is Not Round. The Astrophysical Journal, 862(1), 11. https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/aacbcf
• Schwadron, N. A., & McComas, D. J. (2017). Effects of Solar Activity on the Local Interstellar Magnetic Field Observed by Voyager 1 and IBEX. The Astrophysical Journal, 849(2), 135. https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/aa8fd5
• Galli, A., Wurz, P., Schwadron, N. A., Kucharek, H., Möbius, E., Bzowski, M., Sokół, J. M., Kubiak, M. A., Fuselier, S. A., Funsten, H. O., & McComas, D. J. (2017). The Downwind Hemisphere of the Heliosphere: Eight Years of IBEX-Lo Observations. The Astrophysical Journal, 851(1), 2. https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/aa988f
• Baliukin, I. I., Izmodenov, V. V., Möbius, E., Alexashov, D. B., Katushkina, O. A., & Kucharek, H. (2017). Secondary Interstellar Oxygen in the Heliosphere: Numerical Modeling and Comparison with IBEX-Lo Data. The Astrophysical Journal, 850(2), 119. https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/aa93e8
• McComas, D. J., Zirnstein, E. J., Bzowski, M., Dayeh, M. A., Funsten, H. O., Fuselier, S. A., Janzen, P. H., Kubiak, M. A., Kucharek, H., Möbius, E., Reisenfeld, D. B., Schwadron, N. A., Sokół, J. M., Szalay, J. R., & Tokumaru, M. (2017). Seven Years of Imaging the Global Heliosphere with IBEX. The Astrophysical Journal Supplement Series, 229(2), 41. https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4365/aa66d8
• Park, J., Kucharek, H., Möbius, E., Galli, A., Kubiak, M. A., Bzowski, M., & McComas, D. J. (2016). IBEX Observations of Secondary Interstellar Helium and Oxygen Distributions. The Astrophysical Journal, 833(2), 130. https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/833/2/130

Launched Aug 12, 2018

The Parker Solar Probe is a NASA Solar-Terrestrial Probes mission that will travel closer to the sun than any previous mission.  At its closest approach, it will be within 9 Solar Radii of the sun's surface.  Parker Solar Probe will study the origin and evolution of the solar wind. The University of New Hampshire operates the science operations center for the Integrated Science Investigation of the Sun, which is an instrument suite consisting of two energetic particle instruments, EPI-Lo and EPI-Hi. 

Launched Oct 19, 2008

The Interstellar Boundary Explorer (IBEX) mission is a NASA Small Explorer mission designed to investigate the nature of the interactions between the solar wind and the interstellar medium at the edge of the solar system.  It has two instruments, IBEX-Lo and IBEX-Hi, that measure neutral particles that originate at the interstellar boundary. UNH designed and built the time-of-flight section of the IBEX-Lo instrument and designed and built collimators for both IBEX-Lo and IBEX-Hi. UNH is also the lead for the IBEX Science Operations Center, and the data from the mission are now available.  

Launched June 18, 2009

The Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter was a first step in planning for a return of humans to the moon.  The mission is designed to look for landing sites and resources, and to characterize the environment. UNH is the lead for the Cosmic Ray Telescope for the Effects of Radation (CRaTER) instrument. CRaTER is deisgned to characaterize the lunar radiation environment and its biological impacts.

Launched Oct 25, 2006

The NASA Solar Terrestrial Relations Observatory (STEREO) mission uses two nearly identical spacecraft in orbit about the Sun to provide a unique and revolutionary view of the Sun-Earth system. The strategic placement of the two spacecraft allows for the first time a stereoscopic (3-D) view of the Sun and the interplanetary space environment out to the orbit of the Earth.  Of particular interest to this mission is the origin, propagation and evolution of coronal mass ejections (CMEs). CMEs are the primary cause of major space weather disturbances at the Earth. The STEREO Science Data Center provides more detailed mission data.

The STEREO payload combines remote imaging of the Sun and its eruptions with in-situ sampling of the particles and fields that subsequently flow past the spacecraft. UNH is the lead for the Plasma and Suprathermal Composition (PLASTIC) instrument, which measures the bulk properties of the solar wind ions, as well as solar wind composition and suprathermal particles.  The PLASTIC consortium includes the University of New Hampshire, the University of Bern, the Max Planck Institute, Christian-Albrechts-University Kiel, and NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, under the overall direction of the University of New Hampshire (Dr. A.B. Galvin, PI). PLASTIC data, summary plots, and documentation are now available. 

Launched Aug 25, 1997

The Advance Composition Explorer (ACE) is a NASA Explorers mission to study solar wind, solar energetic particles and cosmic rays. In addition, ACE provides a real-time space weather data stream that is used for giving advance warning for geomagnetic storms. UNH has two roles for this spacecraft.  Eberhard Moebius is the lead for the Solar Energetic Particle Ionic Charge Analyzer (SEPICA) instrument, and the instrument was designed and built at UNH in collaboration with the Max Planck Institute. Chuck Smith is a co-investigator on the ACE Magnetometer and is the data manager for that instrument. Find out more about the ACE/MAG Project, the ACE Science Center, and the ACE real-time solar wind conditions.