Bulletin of the American Physical Society
2017 Annual Meeting of the APS Mid-Atlantic Section
Volume 62, Number 19
Friday–Sunday, November 3–5, 2017; Newark, New Jersey
Session E6: Terrestrial Physics I |
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Chair: Rualdo Soto-Chavez, New Jersey Institute of Technology Room: 240, Campus Center, NJIT |
Saturday, November 4, 2017 10:00AM - 10:36AM |
E6.00001: Space weather and consequences for technical systems Invited Speaker: Louis Lanzerotti The electrical telegraph, invented in the mid-19th century, was a revolution for human communications. The telegraph was also the first electrical technology to encounter the effects of space weather on its operations. Since that era, space weather --- processes originating at the sun and disturbing Earth's environment --- have affected the design, implementation, and operation of many engineered systems on Earth and in space. As the nature and complexities of such systems change, these systems can become more susceptible to the effects of space weather. This talk will briefly describe aspects of the historical development of understanding of space weather on technical systems. The talk will describe some contemporary research, including by the currently flying Van Allen Probes mission, that is directed toward understanding and forecasting of space weather, and the design against, and mitigation of, space weather consequences. [Preview Abstract] |
Saturday, November 4, 2017 10:36AM - 11:12AM |
E6.00002: Understanding Space Plasmas Through Laboratory Experiments. Invited Speaker: Gurudas Ganguli In the space plasma environment it is hard to pinpoint the causality of events and isolate a specific phenomenon for precise and repeated measurements necessary for definitive conclusion. Complementary laboratory experiments scaled to the appropriate space conditions can help in understanding the physics. Coordinated analyses using both laboratory and space data have been shown to clarify subtleties of space plasma processes. Specific examples will be discussed to highlight the synergy derived from laboratory experiments in understanding natural plasma phenomena. These include cause and effect of turbulence in space, coherent and incoherent processes associated with triggered/chorus emissions frequently observed in the radiation belts, and structure and dynamics of boundary layers such as dipolarization fronts, etc. [Preview Abstract] |
Saturday, November 4, 2017 11:12AM - 11:24AM |
E6.00003: Initial Results of HamSCI Ham Radio 21 August 2017 Eclipse Ionospheric Experiments N.A. Frissell, J.D. Katz, J.S. Vega, S.W. Gunning, A.J. Gerrard, J.D. Huba, M.L. Moses, G.D. Earle, H.W. Silver On 21 August 2017, a total solar eclipse will cause the shadow of the moon to traverse the United States from Oregon to South Carolina in just over 90 minutes. The sudden absence of sunlight due to the eclipse, especially solar UV and x-rays, provides an impulse function to the upper atmosphere that modifies the neutral dynamics, plasma concentrations, and related properties. Despite more than 60 years of research, questions remain regarding eclipse-induced ionospheric impacts. Ham radio operators’ advanced technical skills and inherent interest in ionospheric science make the amateur radio community ideal for contributing to and and participating in large-scale ionospheric sounding experiments. We present initial results from three amateur radio experiments designed to study the 2017 total solar eclipse: the Solar Eclipse QSO Party (SEQP), the HF Wideband Recording Experiment, and the Eclipse Frequency Measurement Test (FMT). These experiments are coordinated by HamSCI, the Ham Radio Science Citizen Investigation, a citizen science organization that connects the amateur radio community to the professional space science research community for mutual benefit. [Preview Abstract] |
Saturday, November 4, 2017 11:24AM - 12:00PM |
E6.00004: Fast Reconnection in Laboratory and Space Plasmas Invited Speaker: Amitava Bhattacharjee In recent years, new developments in reconnection theory have challenged classical nonlinear reconnection models. One of these developments is the so-called plasmoid instability of thin current sheets that grows at super-Alfvenic growth rates. Within the resistive MHD model, this instability alters qualitatively the predictions of the Sweet-Parker model, leading to a new nonlinear regime of fast reconnection in which the reconnection rate itself becomes independent of S. This regime has also been seen in Hall MHD as well as fully kinetic simulations, and thus appears to be a universal feature of thin current sheet dynamics, including applications to reconnection forced by the solar wind in the heliosphere and spontaneously unstable sawtooth oscillations in tokamaks. In three dimensions, the instability produces self-generated and strongly anisotropic turbulence in which the reconnection rate for the mean-fields remain approximately at the two-dimensional value, but the energy spectra deviate significantly from anisotropic strong MHD turbulence phenomenology. A new phase diagram of fast reconnection has been proposed guiding the design of future laboratory experiments in magnetically confined and high-energy-density plasmas, and have important implications for explorations of the reconnection layer in the recently launched NASA MMS mission. [Preview Abstract] |
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