Collaborative Research: Meteor Plasmas - Dynamics and Radiowave Scattering

合作研究：流星等离子体 - 动力学和无线电波散射

• 批准号: 0613624
• 负责人: Meers Oppenheim
• 金额: --
• 依托单位: Trustees of Boston University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Continuing Grant
• 财政年份: 2006
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2006-08-01 至 2009-07-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0613624&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Collaborative; Research; Meteor; Plasmas; Dynamics

Billions of particles impact the Earth's upper atmosphere every day with sufficient energy to create high-density plasma trails in the E-region ionosphere. For the last 50 years, optics and radars have characterized these meteor plasmas in order to infer properties of the meteoroids (speed, direction of origin, size) and the atmosphere (winds and, recently, temperatures). The research will use theoretical and numerical modeling to investigate the deposition of meteoric material in the upper atmosphere and of how this material is transported and transformed. This involves development of basic plasma physics theory and computer simulations for highly collisional plasmas in magnetic fields. One of the primary objectives of the research is to simulate meteor evolution from ablation to suffusion into the atmosphere. To achieve this task, a combination of models and simulations spanning physical scales from sub-millimeters to tens of meters and dynamic time-scales from microseconds to seconds will be developed. The 3-D Particle-in-Cell (PIC) code as well as hybrid simulator techniques will be adopted.The research is interdisciplinary in nature, addressing basic plasma physics science questions that also have great practical relevance to a broad range of applications in aeronomy, astrophysics, and space science engineering. In addition, the project has a strong educational component. It would provide support for both undergraduate and graduate students at Boston University.

每天都有数十亿粒子撞击地球的高层大气，其能量足以在 E 区电离层中产生高密度等离子体轨迹。在过去的 50 年里，光学和雷达已经对这些流星等离子体进行了表征，以便推断流星体的特性（速度、起源方向、大小）和大气（风和最近的温度）。该研究将利用理论和数值模型来研究流星物质在高层大气中的沉积以及这些物质是如何运输和转化的。这涉及基本等离子体物理理论的发展以及磁场中高度碰撞等离子体的计算机模拟。该研究的主要目标之一是模拟流星从烧蚀到弥漫到大气中的演化过程。为了实现这一任务，将开发涵盖从亚毫米到数十米的物理尺度和从微秒到秒的动态时间尺度的模型和模拟组合。将采用 3D 颗粒细胞 (PIC) 代码以及混合模拟器技术。该研究本质上是跨学科的，解决了基本的等离子体物理科学问题，这些问题也与航空领域的广泛应用具有很大的实际相关性、天体物理学和空间科学工程。此外，该项目还具有很强的教育意义。它将为波士顿大学的本科生和研究生提供支持。