Bulletin of the American Physical Society
65th Annual Meeting of the APS Division of Plasma Physics
Monday–Friday, October 30–November 3 2023; Denver, Colorado
Session YO04: Space and Atmospheric Plasmas |
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Chair: Jongsoo Yoo, Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory Room: Governor's Square 11 |
Friday, November 3, 2023 9:30AM - 9:42AM |
YO04.00001: Cusp Ion Precipitation Associated with Magnetopause Reconnection: Global Hybrid Simulation of TRICE-2 Rocket Event Yu Lin, Xueyi Wang, Mark L Adrian, Steven M Petrinec, Stephen A Fuselier, Craig A Kletzing, Karlheinz J Trattner, Simon Wing We investigate the linkage between the magnetopause reconnection and cusp ion precipitation by conducting 3D global hybrid simulations using the Auburn Global Hybrid Code in 3D (ANGIE3D). The simulation is performed for the cusp event observed by the Twin Rocket Investigation of Cusp Electrodynamics-2 (TRICE-2) rockets in conjunction with an MMS magnetopause crossing (Fuselier et al., 2022, https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1029/2022JA030354), under the condition of a southward interplanetary magnetic field (IMF) with a predominant By component. Multiple reconnection sites are present at the northern-dawn and southern-dusk sectors as well as lower latitudes. The corresponding cusp ion precipitation is recursive with a period of ~ minute around certain fixed latitudes. The global evolution of magnetopause reconnection, cusp location and size, and cusp ion precipitation are investigated. A detailed comparison between the simulated energy-latitude dispersive spectrum of cusp ions and the TRICE-2 in-situ observation is presented. |
Friday, November 3, 2023 9:42AM - 9:54AM |
YO04.00002: Modelling the detection of radiation sources in low earth orbits with Geant4 Belkis Cabrera Palmer, Dustin Fisher, Mark C Woods, Shane Rightley, Jose Sanchez, Matthew Allen The monitoring of particle radiation sources in low earth orbits (LEO) can not only rely on the detection of neutral particles (gamma-rays/neutrons) as in earth-bound scenarios, but also on detecting charged particles (electrons/positrons) induced in the outer materials of the satellite carrying the radiation source. While neutral particle fluxes decrease as 1/r2 , electrons and positrons trapped in the geomagnetic field can travel thousands of km. Neutral and charge particles from reactor-powered satellites were detected in the 1980’s by the Solar Maximum Mission (Rieger et al. Science, Vol-244, 1989). The temporal and spectral features of these man-made signals allow to differentiate them from LEO backgrounds like gamma-ray bursts and solar flares. |
Friday, November 3, 2023 9:54AM - 10:06AM Withdrawn |
YO04.00003: Recent progress in modeling Farley-Buneman turbulence: Revisiting fluid stability and the application of surrogate models Enrique L Rojas, Charles E Seyler, David L Hysell, Xinran Zhu It is generally accepted that modeling Farley-Buneman instabilities require resolving ion Landau damping to reproduce experimentally observed features. Particle-in-cell (PIC) simulations have been able to reproduce most of these but at a computational cost that severely affects their scalability. This limitation hinders the study of non-local phenomena that require three dimensions or coupling with larger-scale processes. We argue that a form of the five-moment fluid system can recreate several qualitative aspects of Farley–Buneman dynamics, such as density and phase speed saturation, wave turning, and heating. Unexpectedly, these features are reproduced even without using artificial viscosity to capture Landau damping. This work will describe the mechanisms that allow fluid models to capture this instability despite the standard predictions. Our results suggest that the electron inertia, commonly neglected, can contribute significantly to stabilizing the system through the advection term. Furthermore, we will compare the role of thermal effects, viscosity, and Landau closures as stabilizing mechanisms. Moreover, we will briefly describe recent efforts to build surrogate models based on Gaussian processes to capture the main features of these simulations and how these surrogates can be used for plasma diagnostics and multiscale simulations. |
Friday, November 3, 2023 10:06AM - 10:18AM |
YO04.00004: Greenhouse gas conversion to fuels via plasma-enhanced catalysis: Effect of catalyst formulation on electric field and product selectivit Sean D Knecht, Sven G Bilen, Aniyah Brunson, Berkay Ekinci, Chien Hsiu Ho, Gina Noh, Sathya M Perera, Xiaoxing Wang Methane and carbon dioxide are greenhouse gases that are key contributors to climate change. Methane is the primary component of natural gas and is emitted from various sources such as oil and gas wells and landfills, which are often flared. Carbon capture and sequestration are rapidly-advancing technologies to trap carbon dioxide geologically. Another option would be converting them to higher hydrocarbons (C2+ species), either olefins or paraffins, for use as chemical precursors or fuels. Carbon dioxide hydrogenation or methane reforming can be accomplished using catalysts such as iron or cobalt; the traditional thermal catalysis is an energy-intensive process requiring high temperatures and pressures. Introduction of plasma, called plasma-enhanced catalysis, allows the process to proceed at atmospheric-pressure and ambient temperatures. It is well-known that plasma and catalysts exhibit synergistic interactions that are still not fully understood, but one aspect is that electric fields may influence the electron energy distribution and hence the chemistry, suggesting a route to control product selectivity. We are investigating the influence of dielectric support materials and catalyst formulation in a packed-bed dielectric barrier discharge for production of propane and butane. Here we report results from Electric Field Induced Second Harmonic (E-FISH) generation measurements in plasma-catalyst interactions, as well as product distribution from gas chromatography. |
Friday, November 3, 2023 10:18AM - 10:30AM |
YO04.00005: Metastability of magnetically supported atmospheres and their relaxation David N Hosking, David Wasserman, Steven C Cowley The linear and nonlinear stability of a hydrodynamic atmosphere against adiabatic perturbations is determined by the well-known Schwarzschild criterion: an atmosphere is stable if its entropy increases with height [1]. However, the generalisation of this criterion to atmospheres that are partially supported by magnetic pressure only guarantees linear stability. In this talk, we demonstrate that there exist “metastable” magnetised atmospheres, which are unstable to large perturbations despite being stable to small ones. We show how the density, pressure and magnetic-flux profiles of metastable atmospheres can be derived analytically, demonstrate their nonlinear relaxation using numerical simulations, and develop a statistical mechanical theory to predict their nonlinearly relaxed states. We discuss applications of the metastability phenomenon to explosive releases of energy in astrophysical and fusion plasmas. |
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