FG: Mesoscale drivers of the nightside transition region ionospheric and magnetotail evaluations

General Description

The Nightside Transition Region (NTR) is located between the outer and inner magnetosphere, and is characterized by the transition from a stretched magnetotail to a more dipolar inner magnetospheric field topology. During quiet times, the NTR acts like a “magnetic wall,” deflecting plasma and associated plasma structures around the inner magnetosphere. During active times, the NTR is a location of intense plasma energization and transport, often associated with the formation and evolution of mesoscale structures as the plasma dynamics in the transition region evolve. In recent years, our understanding of the NTR has advanced considerably due to coordinated space- and ground-based observations, as well as magnetosphere and ionosphere modeling efforts. The ground-based observations, particularly imaging systems, are arguably the only way to track the formation and evolution of mesoscale processes over a large enough region of space to tie these observations to a system-level understanding. In coordination with multiple in-situ satellites, this is an incredibly powerful combination that can “drill in” at multiple scale sizes, informing global and local models of plasma interactions. The current understanding of the plasma dynamics in the region is that most of the plasma transport and energization occurs as the plasma moves inwards from the magnetotail to the inner magnetosphere via mesoscale flows (~10s-100s km wide, when observed in the ionosphere). These flows sometimes manifest themselves as optical streamers, while others can remain invisible with current imaging technologies. Despite much research, we still do not fully understand how these mesoscale structures are incorporated in the global dynamics of the NTR, or how they are coupled to (and why they can have multiple manifestations in) the ionospheric system. It is this type of mesoscale structuring of plasma, and its connection to ionospheric processes within the NTR that we are proposing to study within this focus group. Those auroral processes such as beads, streamers, patches, omega bands, SAR arcs, STEVE, etc., all of which are driven by magnetospheric counterparts rooted in the NTR region and whose evolution is intimately tied to the large- scale dynamics of the magnetospheric system. We recognize that this is a very broad topic for a focus group, but we also know these auroral forms (and associated plasma processes) do not occur in isolation. They are often observed together and connected to magnetospheric activity levels, yet historically they have been studied largely independent of each other. Our focus group proposes to unite the study of NTR processes whose scale size sits between 10-100km in the ionosphere (1000km- to a few Re in the magnetotail) and for which the ionosphere-magnetosphere connection is best studied through coordinated ground and in situ observations. We will strive to uncover inter-connections between NTR processes, and connections between NTR processes and the larger magnetospheric dynamics.

The overarching goal of this proposed Focus Group is to utilize ground- and satellite-based data to understand the evolution and drivers of plasma processes in the NTR, and how they connect to ionospheric observations. This will help facilitate more realistic modeling representations of the region.

For full FG proposal CLICK HERE.

Focus Group Chairs

Bea Gallardo-Lacourt, NASA-GSFC/CUA (bea.gallardolacourt@nasa.gov)

Gareth Perry, New Jersey Institute of Technology(gperry@njit.edu)

Emma Spanswick, University of Calgary (elspansw@ucalgary.ca)

Banafsheh (Bashi) Ferdousi, University of New Hampshire (Banafsheh.Ferdousi@unh.edu)

Yaireska (Yari) Collado-Vega, NASA-GSFC (yaireska.m.colladovega@nasa.gov)

mini-GEM Workshop 2023

The mini-GEM workshop will be held at the Holiday Inn San Francisco – Golden Gateway (1500 Van Ness Avenue, San Francisco, CA 94109).

Our Focus Group would have three hybrid sessions:

1. First Session: Student led session and discussion with the community--Oregon+Nevada Room 12:00-13:30 pm PST. We encourage students to reach out to us (bea.gallardolacourt@nasa.gov) and present there science in 2-3 slides.

2. Second session: A discussion with the community about NRT processes--Oregon+Nevada Room 13:45-15:15 pm PST In this session we will target two questions initially posed at the NTR workshop: How do we average arc-scale processes to be representative in the global dynamics? (By Tuija Pulkkinen) and Can we leverage high-resolution flow and auroral observations for specifying the ionosphere state? (By Toshi Nishimura) There would be no presentations, but single slides would be allowed.

3. Third Session: MESO+CGS--Redwood Room 15:30-17:00 pm PST Data and Model comparison of Mesoscale structures. This is the continuation of a workshop-style discussion that started at the GEM summer workshop 2023.

GEM Workshop 2023

Our Focus Group is involved in five session during the summer workshop. All of the GEM sessions are hybrid. The sessions are divided in the following way:

The student moderator helping us in the sessions is Akhtar Ardakani from UNH

1. First Session: "Why is the GDC mission important to the magnetospheric community?"

Monday June 12 in Room B between 10:30 am -12:00 pm PST.-- Organized together with the GDC science Team represented by Anna DeJong

• Larry Kepko - GDC Deputy Project Scientist
• Eftyhia Zesta - CAPE and NEMISIS
• Yue Deng - GDC SOPHIE IDS Team
• Jared Bell - Modeling approaches
• Emma Spanswick - Ground-based optical capabilities

2. Second & Third Session: The Substorm Current Wedge Paradigm.

Monday June 12 in Room A. This session is organized together with the Dipolarization FG and the EZIE Science Team

Session 1. 1:30-3:00 pm PST: Scene setting talks on the Substorm Current Wedge Paradigm.

• Bob McPherron (UCLA)
• Larry Kepko (NASA/GSFC)
• Jesper Gjerloev (JHU/APL)

Session 2. 3:30-5:30 pm PST: Discussion with a panel of experts.

• Joachim Birn (Space Science Institute)
• Slava Merkin (JHU/APL)
• Shin Ohtani (JHU/APL)
• Toshi Nishimura (Boston University)
• Karl Laundal (University of Bergen)

3. Fourth Session: “What can ground-based observations tell us about the mesoscale phenomena occurring in space?”

Thursday June 15 in Room A at 1:30-3:00 pm PST. This session is organized together with the DIP and MPEC FGs

4. Fifth Session: “Hands on workshop: Data and Model comparison of Mesoscale structures”

Friday June 16 in Room A at 10:30am-12:00 pm PST. This session is organized by the Center for Geospace Storms

For more information please contact any of the Focus group Chairs.

mini-GEM Workshop 2022

The mini-GEM workshop will be held at the Hilton Chicago Hotel (720 South Michigan Avenue, Chicago, IL).

Our Focus Group would have two hybrid sessions:

1. First Session: DIP+MESO+RB Joint in the Williford C room between 12-13:30 pm CST. In this session, participants are encouraged to address the following questions: How important are mesoscale injections that initiate in the tail plasma sheet to the inner magnetosphere? What’s the role of the transition region in mass and energy transport? How effectively can plasma sheet injections get through the transition region, and/or does the transition region act as a filter? Are the important injections those that are more global in scale? Or, what are we missing in data and/or models to answer these questions?. We appreciate for speakers to email us ahead of time to let us know which question(s) they will address.

2. Second Session: Mesoscale drivers of the NTR in the Williford C room between 13:45-15:15 pm CST This session will focus on magnetosphere-ionosphere coupling and its consequences on the NTR. For this session, we also appreciate for speakers to email us ahead of time if interested in presenting.

GEM Workshop 2022

Access the PDF files of presented talks CLICK HERE.

Our focus group has three sessions planned at GEM this year. We’ve divided these sessions into three different themes:

1. First session: MESO/CEDAR joint, Monday June 20, 2022, 13:30 - 15:00 HST. During this session we will discuss the ionospheric implication and phenomena that take place in the NTR. For example, STEVE and SAR arcs. This session will be a joint session with CEDAR (connected via video conferencing link).

2. Second session: Magnetospheric aspects of the NTR processes, Tuesday June 21, 2022, 1:30 - 3:00 pm HST. Inner plasma sheet dynamic, pulsating aurora, energetic interactions around the NTR, etc

3. Third session: Meso/Dipolarization joint, Friday June 24, 2022, 10:30 - 12:00 HST. For this joint session we will follow the Dipolarization FG discussion of the last years on the roles that mesoscale phenomena (e.g. DFBs, BBFs, injections, streamers) play with respect to the global system response (e.g. global dipolarization, MLT wide injections). As the Dipolarization FG winds down, the Transition FG will take the lead on this topic. For this session, we therefore solicit contributions that address this question.

Please submit by June 1st (soft deadline)

For remote presenters, virtual contribution options will be available. Students’ talks are highly encouraged. Feel free to contact Bea Gallardo-Lacourt (gallardolacourt@cua.edu) with questions.

Tentative Agenda

MESO+CEDAR Joint: Monday, June 20, 1:00 - 3:00 pm HST (6:00-8:00pm CDT) -- Stingray Room

• Phil Erickson - STEVE workshop updates and future plans
• Lindsay Goodwin - Multipoint Observations of STEVE Precursors
• Bharat Kunduri - An examination of magnetosphere-ionosphere-thermosphere coupling during STEVE
• Valerie Svaldi - High Latitude Ionospheric Electrodynamics during STEVE Events
• Naomi Maruyama - Impact of substorm injections on Magnetosphere-Ionosphere coupling
• Jun Liang - TBD
• Carlos Martinis - SAR arcs & STEVE
• Eric Donovan - Updates on TREx
• Shasha Zou - Impact of the NTR on polar cap patch evolution
• Nithin Sivadas - Current sheet scattering from the night-side transition regions and their auroral signatures

Mesoscale structures in the NTR-Magnetosphere: Tuesday, June 21, 1:30pm-3:00pm HST -- Bluefin Room

• Megan Gillies - quick review to SAR arc and STEVE spectrographic measurements
• Alexa Halford - LAMP mission overview
• Allison Jaynes - Persistent, energetic pulsating aurora during the LAMP mission launch window
• Mike Shumko - A Strong Correlation Between Relativistic Electron Microbursts and Patchy Aurora
• Jun Liang - Low-energy plasma structure and patchy pulsating aurora: observational evidence and numerical simulation
• Kyle Murphy - The asi_tools library - Accessing all sky imager data
• Mike Shumko - Quick overview of Python aurora-ASI-lib
• Sneha Babu - Probing the magnetospheric substorm onset mechanism using pitch angle resolved GOES satellite energetic particle data
• Sheng Tian - Auroral beads in conjunction with kinetic Alfven waves in the equatorial inner-magnetosphere
• Jiang Liu - Embedded Region 1 and 2 currents: preferred conditions and indications on how they arise and impact the transition region

MESO/DIP Joint Session: Friday, June 24, 10:30am-12:00pm HST -- Stingray Room

• Yangyang Shen - Contribution of kinetic Alfvén waves to energetic electron scattering and precipitation from plasma sheet injections
• James Weygand - ASI and GOES Observations of Nighttime Magnetic Perturbation Events Observed in Canada
• Chih-Ping Wang - RCM simulation of azimuthal expansion of plasma sheet bubble in transition region
• Sheng Tiang - Coordinated observations on how global-scale dipolarizations couple to the ionosphere and meso-scale dipolarizations
• Matt Cooper - Field-aligned thermodynamic features represented in the Middle Energy Inner Magnetosphere (MEIM) Model
• Kareem Sorathia - Global modeling of multiscale stormtime magnetosphere-ionosphere coupling
• Homayon Aryan - The response of ionospheric currents to different types of magnetospheric fast flow bursts