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Description
- Introduction - Plasmas in the solar system, solar effects on Earth, historical context of the development of this rapidly developing field
- Plasmas - What is a plasma, and what is special about space plasmas; Debye shielding, the plasma criteria
- Single particle theory - Particle motion in various electric and magnetic field configurations; drift motions; magnetic mirrors; adiabatic invariants
- Earth鈥檚 radiation belts - Observed particle populations; bounce motion; South Atlantic Anomaly; ring current; particle populations in the inner magnetosphere; ring current; radiation belts and particle populations in the inner magnetosphere
- Introduction to kinetic theory 鈥� Distribution functions; Vlasov-Maxwell system of equations; Landau damping
- Applications of kinetic theory; transition to fluid (magnetohydrodynamics) equations; plasma instabilities; magnetic pressure and tension; MHD waves
- The solar wind - Introduction, including concept of heliosphere; frozen-in condition; fluid model of the solar wind (Parker); interplanetary magnetic field and sector structure; fast and slow solar wind; solar wind at Earth; coronal mass ejections
- Collisionless shocks 鈥� Shock jump conditions, shock structure, shock examples
- The Earth鈥檚 magnetosphere and its dynamics 鈥� Magnetospheric convection, magnetospheric currents, the magnetopause, open magnetosphere formation, magnetosphere-ionosphere coupling, non-steady magnetosphere; the sub-storm process
- Measuring space plasmas; future missions for space weather.
This module requires very good familiarity with vector calculus, partial/ordinary differential equations, and electrodynamics.
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Module deliveries for 2024/25 academic year
Last updated
This module description was last updated on 8th April 2024.
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