Magnetospheric Physics at Southampton

This Consolidated Grant application proposes research which will be undertaken at the University of Southampton, into the responses of two planetary systems (the magnetospheres of Earth and Jupiter) to the solar wind.

Our research into Earth's magnetosphere will address questions about the fundamental process that drives the interaction between the solar wind and the Earth's magnetic field, and why it appears to occur intermittently. We will do so by exploiting data from the newly-launched NASA mission MMS in order to probe signatures of this interaction in unprecedented detail, and to determine the physical processes controlling it. The nature of this interaction depends on the orientation of the interplanetary magnetic field, which is associated with the solar wind. This orientation is highly changeable, but can be referred to as 'northward' or 'southward'. We will use satellite observations to test mechanisms that have been advocated for previously observed complex structure in the magnetosphere during periods when the interplanetary magnetic field is 'northward', and to test whether (and under what conditions) state-of-the-art simulations reproduce such activity.

With respect to Jupiter's magnetosphere, we will use powerful telescopes to image Jupiter's auroras at X-ray wavelengths. These "pictures" of the X-ray aurora will be compared with measurements by a spacecraft called Juno which is orbiting Jupiter and is sampling its magnetic environment. The combination of the X-ray observations and Juno measurements will allow us to link the physics of what causes the X-rays to local conditions in Jupiter's magnetosphere and in the solar wind. We want to understand what physical mechanisms drive Jupiter's X-ray auroras and why they sometimes appear to flash in a periodic way.

The expected impact of this research falls into two main areas:

1) Economic and societal impact: Society is becoming increasingly dependent upon a technological infrastructure that is sensitive to the effects of space weather, as recognised by the inclusion of severe space weather on the UK Cabinet Office Risk Register. Therefore there is a societal need for the development of better space weather forecasts. The research proposed in this application is into the fundamental science that underlies space weather, and therefore will impact space weather forecasting in the longer term. This is particularly the case for Project 1, which includes a specific element that will test and validate state-of-the-art global scale simulations (which provide the backbone for space weather forecasts) against observations under a set of conditions for which the simulations do not appear to cope well. Therefore this part of our research will have direct impact on the development of the next generation of models for space weather forecasting, and hence society and our economy.

2) Public engagement and outreach: The study of planetary magnetospheres lends itself to outreach activities, and the University of Southampton's Space Environment Physics group has an active outreach programme. We will continue to undertake outreach activities associated with our research, in particular through the activities outlined in our proposed project on "Public Engagement with Research", which details how we will engage with the public with the two specific research projects outlined in this proposal. Another route to public engagement is through interaction with the media; both applicants have experience in this area, and recent STFC-funded research at Southampton has led to media coverage. We will continue to engage with the public in this way.

Details of how we expect to achieve this impact are given in the impact plan, and our project on Public Engagement with Research.