Solar Interactions with the Earth's Atmosphere and Space
Environment
- How does the solar wind plasma enter the magnetosphere?
How important is reconnection compared to diffusion and direct
entry processes?
- How does magnetospheric convection respond to changes in
the solar wind and interplanetary magnetic field (IMF)? How is it
affected by the highly variable ionization in the ionosphere and
winds in the upper atmosphere?
- Where and how are substorms triggered and magnetic storms
driven? How do the properties of both the near-Earth and the
distant magnetotail change during storms and substorms?
- What are the relative contributions of the ionospheric and solar
wind plasma sources to populating the magnetosphere?
What processes are responsible for the energization and loss of
particles in the inner magnetosphere (ring current)? What
processes transport plasma between the ionosphere and the
magnetosphere? What processes heat the plasmasphere?
- What are the global distributions of electric fields, current
systems, and charged particles in the magnetosphere-ionosphere
coupling region? How do current systems with different spatial
sizes affect energy transfer in the Earth's space environment?
- How is absorbed solar energy transformed by chemical
reactions in the Earth's atmosphere?
- How do dynamical, chemical, and energetic coupling processes between
neutral and charged particles help determine the variability of the
ionosphere?
- How does the upper atmosphere respond to forcing from the Sun, from
the Earth and lower atmosphere, and from anthropogenic influences?
Comparative Planetary Space Environments
- How is the interaction of the solar wind with a magnetized
planet with no ionosphere (Mercury) different from that at Earth?
- What clues about the future evolution of the Earth's upper
atmosphere can be found in the upper atmosphere of Mars?
- How is auroral particle acceleration in a rotationally-
dominated planetary magnetosphere (Jupiter) different from that at
Earth?
Space Weather
- What factors cause the solar particle and radiative output to
vary on short time scales (hours) and moderate time scales (days to
solar cycle)?
- How do the upper atmosphere and ionosphere respond to solar
variability?
- How is the flux of trapped energetic particles modulated by solar
activity?