Space Science Center PhD student Brianna Isola was awarded $99,233 for successfully proposing to NASA’s Future Investigators in NASA Earth and Space Science and Technology (FINESST). As a Future Investigator, Brianna is primarily responsible for writing the proposal and carrying out the proposed work.
The two-year project, titled “Evaluating the Magnetospheric System via Data-Driven Modeling,” uses measurements from NASA’s Magnetospheric Multiscale (MMS) mission to create a global model of Earth’s Inner Magnetospheric Electric Field (IMEF). The IMEF is responsible for transporting particles and energy released during space weather events, called geomagnetic storms, throughout the magnetosphere and down through the ionosphere.
The IMEF is notoriously difficult to measure and current empirical models fail to reproduce its dynamic nature. Brianna’s model solves both of these problems by using unique instrumentation from MMS and state-of-the-art machine learning techniques. With her model, she will study Subauroral Polarization Streams (SAPS), an ionospheric phenomena that influences Magnetospheric dynamics.
Learn more about NASA’s Future Investigators in NASA Earth and Space Science and Technology (FINESST) here.
