Related papers: The Sun-Earth-Moon Connection: I--3D Global Kineti…
High-power inductively coupled plasma (ICP) wind tunnels are widely used to reproduce high-enthalpy environments relevant to atmospheric entry and hypersonic testing. Despite their importance, radiative heat transfer in ICP facilities is…
The outer heliosphere is a dynamic region shaped largely by the interaction between the solar wind and the interstellar medium. While interplanetary magnetic field and plasma observations by the Voyager spacecraft have significantly…
Planetary plasma and magnetic field environments can be studied by in situ measurements or by remote sensing. While the former provide precise information about plasma behaviour, instabilities and dynamics on local scales, the latter offers…
We review our understanding of ionized plasma and neutral gas coupling in the weakly ionized, stratified, electromagnetically-permeated regions of the Sun's chromosphere and Earth's ionosphere/thermosphere. Using representative models for…
Neutral hydrogen has been shown to greatly impact the plasma flow in the heliopshere and the location of the heliospheric boundaries. We present the results of the Solar-wind with Hydrogen Ion Exchange and Large-scale Dynamics (SHIELD)…
Solar system bodies that lack a significant atmosphere and significant internal magnetic fields, such as the Moon and asteroids, have been considered as passive absorbers of the solar wind. However, ion observations near the Moon by the…
The planet Mercury possesses a small but highly dynamic magnetosphere in which the role and dynamics of electrons are still largely unknown. We aim at modeling the global dynamics of solar wind electrons impinging on Mercury's…
Solar wind-magnetosphere coupling, its causes and consequences have been studied for the last several decades. However, the assessment of continuously changing behaviour of the sun, plasma and field flows in the interplanetary space and…
We present a pioneering model of the interaction between the solar wind and the surrounding interstellar medium that includes the possibility of different pressures in directions parallel and perpendicular to the magnetic field. The outer…
Studying the ambient solar wind, a continuous pressure-driven plasma flow emanating from our Sun, is an important component of space weather research. The ambient solar wind flows in interplanetary space determine how solar storms evolve…
When the solar wind interacts with the ionosphere of an unmagnetized planet, it induces currents that form an induced magnetosphere. These currents and their associated magnetic fields play a pivotal role in controlling the movement of…
We perform and analyze global Particle-in-Cell (PIC) simulations of the interaction between solar wind and an outgassing comet with the goal of studying the plasma kinetic dynamics of a cometary environment. To achieve this, we design and…
Due to tidal interactions in the Earth-Moon system, the spin of the Earth slows down and the Moon drifts away. This recession of the Moon is now measured with great precision, but it has been realized, more than fifty years ago, that simple…
Impact flashes on the moon are caused by high-speed collisions of celestial bodies with the lunar surface. The study of the impacts is critical for exploring the evolutionary history and formation of the Moon, and for quantifying the risk…
Prevailing models for the formation of the Moon invoke a giant impact between a planetary embryo and the proto-Earth \citep{Canup_2004, Cuk_Stewart_2012}. Despite similarities in the isotopic and chemical abundances of refractory elements…
Large surface temperatures on the illuminated hemisphere of the Moon can lead it to contribute a significant amount of flux to spatially unresolved infrared (IR) observations of the Earth-Moon system, especially at wavelengths where Earth's…
The Earth's magnetosphere is formed as a consequence of interaction between the planet's magnetic field and the solar wind, a continuous plasma stream from the Sun. A number of different solar wind phenomena have been studied over the past…
Ion anisotropies can affect a host of processes within the magnetosphere, from modifying the growth rate of various instabilities to the energization and mass transport within the magnetosphere. Global multi-fluid simulations using a full…
The magnetic cycle of the Sun, as manifested in the cyclic appearance of sunspots, significantly influences our space environment and space-based technologies by generating what is now termed as space weather. Long-term variation in the…
We examine the mechanisms by which atmosphere can be eroded by giant impacts onto Earth-like planets with thin atmospheres, using 3D smoothed particle hydrodynamics simulations with sufficient resolution to directly model the fate of…