INSPIRE Track 1: Concept Development for Active Magnetospheric, Radiation Belt, and Ionospheric Experiments using In-situ Relativistic Electron Beam Injection

INSPIRE 轨道 1：使用原位相对论电子束注入进行活动磁层、辐射带和电离层实验的概念开发

• 批准号: 1344303
• 负责人: Ennio Sanchez
• 金额: $ 75.02万
• 依托单位: SRI International
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Continuing Grant
• 财政年份: 2013
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2013-09-15 至 2017-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1344303&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: INSPIRE; Track; Concept; Development; Active

This INSPIRE award is partially funded by the Aeronomy and Magnetospheric Physics Programs in the Division of Atmospheric and Geospace Sciences in the Directorate for Geoscience, and the Plasma Physics Program in the Directorate for Mathematical and Physical Sciences. The investigators will study the feasibility of conducting controlled experiments in space using million-electron-volt (MeV) beams of electrons. Energetic particles are fundamental to the geospace environment. These particles, and their interactions that produce gamma rays, x-rays, and radio emissions, shed light on the fundamental physics of the space environment. In geospace, particles are accelerated by various mechanisms in the magnetosphere, with energies upwards of 10 MeV. Targeted space-based particle injection experiments have enabled scientific investigations of space plasmas since at least the 1950s. However, these controlled experiments were mainly based on relatively low-energy electron beams (40 keV). Controlled experiments with MeV-class electron beams injected between the magnetosphere and the atmosphere will enable several types of important scientific studies. These include atmospheric-ionospheric-magnetospheric coupling and the response of the atmosphere to long-term geomagnetic forcing; establishing how energetic particles are accelerated, transported, and lost; and understanding the origin and effects of wave-particle interactions. This project has two concurrent objectives: the first is scientific, the other technological. Meeting the scientific objectives will require detailed simulations, modeling, and theoretical calculations of beam-induced instabilities, expansion, and collisions to explore the range of properties of the electron beams. The range of beam properties identified in the science investigation will guide the principal technological objective of this project, which is to define the specifications of the linear accelerators with size, power, and form factors amenable to space deployment and capable of generating the beam characteristics needed to achieve science closure. This study addresses high priority science areas identified by the Heliophysics Decadal Survey and has direct relevance to the science objectives of NASA's Living With a Star, Van Allen Probes mission. The research will also have multiple practical applications. For instance, elucidating how wave-particle interactions cause the radiation belts to lose electrons into the ionosphere will enable technologies for the mitigation of space weather effects. Experiments investigating interactions between relativistic electron beams and the atmosphere will provide a host of diagnostic possibilities for understanding discharges and the modification of chemical reaction paths that will enable technologies to modify nitric oxide (NO) and ozone content in the atmosphere.

该INSPIRE奖是由地球科学局中大气和地理水平科学部的空中和磁层物理计划部分资助的，以及数学和物理科学局的血浆物理学计划。研究人员将使用电子电子束在空间中进行对照实验的可行性。能量颗粒是地理环境的基础。这些颗粒及其产生伽玛射线，X射线和无线电排放的相互作用阐明了空间环境的基本物理。在地理水平方面，磁层中的各种机制加速了颗粒，能量超过10 MeV。至少从1950年代开始，靶向空间的颗粒注入实验已实现了空间等离子体的科学研究。但是，这些受控的实验主要基于相对较低的电子束（40 keV）。对磁层和大气之间注入MEV级电子束的受控实验将使几种重要的科学研究能够实现。这些包括大气中的磁层圈耦合以及大气对长期地磁强迫的响应；确定如何加速，运输和丢失能量颗粒；并了解波粒相互作用的起源和效果。该项目有两个并发目标：第一个是科学的，另一种技术。实现科学目标将需要详细的模拟，建模和理论计算，以探索电子束的性质范围。科学调查中确定的光束特性的范围将指导该项目的主要技术目标，即定义具有大小，功率和形式的线性加速器的规范，可符合空间部署，并能够产生实现科学关闭所需的光束特性。这项研究探讨了Heliophysics decadal调查确定的高优先科学领域，并与NASA生活的科学目标直接相关。该研究还将具有多个实际应用。例如，阐明波粒相互作用如何导致辐射带将电子丢失到电离层中，将使技术能够减轻空间天气影响。研究相对论电子束与大气之间的相互作用的实验将为理解排放和修饰化学反应路径的修改提供大量的诊断可能性，这将使技术能够修改大气中的一氧化氮（NO）和臭氧含量。