Space Physics
The coupled attitude and orbit dynamics of solar sails is studied. The shape of the sail is a simplified quasi-rhombic-pyramid that provides the structure helio-stablility properties. After adimensionalisation, the system is put in the form…
The Magnetospheric Multiscale (MMS) mission has given us unprecedented access to high cadence particle and field data of magnetic reconnection at Earth's magnetopause. MMS first passed very near an X-line on 16 October 2015, the Burch…
Martian bow shocks, the solar wind interacting with an unmagnetized planet, are studied. We theoretically investigated how solar parameters, such as the solar wind dynamic pressure and the solar extreme ultraviolet (EUV) flux, influence the…
Recent statistical studies of observational data unveil relevant correlations between whistler fluctuations and the anisotropic electron populations present in space plasmas, e.g., solar wind and planetary magnetospheres. Locally, whistlers…
The solar wind is a magnetized plasma and as such exhibits collective plasma behavior associated with its characteristic spatial and temporal scales. The characteristic length scales include the size of the heliosphere, the collisional mean…
Magnetic field are transported and tangled by turbulence, even as they lose identity due to nonideal or resistive effects. On balance field lines undergo stretch-twist-fold processes. The curvature field, a scalar that measures the tangling…
In the context of space and astrophysical plasma turbulence and particle heating, several vocabularies emerge for estimating turbulent energy dissipation rate, including Kolmogorov-Yaglom third-order law and, in its various forms,…
Switchbacks (rotations of the magnetic field) are observed on the Parker Solar Probe. Their evolution, content, and plasma effects are studied in this paper. The solar wind does not receive a net acceleration from switchbacks that it…
Electric sails are propulsion systems that generate momentum via the deflection of stellar wind particles through electric forces. Here, we investigate the relative merits of electric sails and light sails driven by stellar radiation…
The scattering of electrons by heat-flux-driven whistler waves is explored with a particle-in-cell (PIC) simulation relevant to the transport of energetic electrons in flares. The simulation is initiated with a large heat flux that is…
Magnetic clouds (MCs), as large-scale interplanetary magnetic flux ropes, are usually still connected to the sun at both ends near 1 AU. Many researchers believe that all non-MC interplanetary coronal mass ejections (ICMEs) also have…
The self-correlation level contours at the 1010 cm scale reveal a 3D isotropic feature in the slow solar wind and a quasi-anisotropic feature in the fast solar wind. However, the 1010 cm scale is approximately near the lowfrequency break…
The solar wind shows periods of highly Alfv\'enic activity, where velocity fluctuations and magnetic fluctuations are aligned or anti-aligned with each other. It is generally agreed that solar wind plasma velocity and magnetic field…
One of the best tools we have in geophysical modelling is the ability to interpolate the horizontal geomagnetic field at the surface of the Earth. This is especially useful in regions, such as southern Africa, where there is a sparse array…
It has long been known that large grounded conducting networks on the surface of Earth are affected by solar activity and geomagnetic storms. Power networks are such extensive grounded conductors and are susceptible to geomagnetically…
For the first time, we explore the tightly coupled interior-magnetosphere system of Mercury by employing a three-dimensional ten-moment multifluid model. This novel fluid model incorporates the non-ideal effects including the Hall effect,…
We use data from the T-SAGE instrument on board the MICROSCOPE space mission to search for Lorentz violation in matter-gravity couplings as described by the Lorentz violating Standard-Model Extension (SME) coefficients…
The NASA Global-scale Observations of the Limb and Disk (GOLD) ultraviolet imaging spectrograph performs observations of upper-atmosphere airglow from the sunlit disk and limb of the Earth, in order to infer quantities such as the…
We investigate the scattering of strahl electrons by microinstabilities as a mechanism for creating the electron halo in the solar wind. We develop a mathematical framework for the description of electron-driven microinstabilities and…
The Radiation Monitor (RADMON) on-board Aalto-1 CubeSat is an energetic particle detector that fulfills the requirements of small size, low power consumption and low budget. Aalto-1 was launched on 23 June 2017 to a sun-synchronous polar…