Robert Weigel, Associate Professor, Physics and Astronomy, received $44,797 from NASA for the project: "Investigating Ground Magnetic Field Perturbations In Extreme Space Weather." Funding for this project began in June 2020 and will end in early May 2021.
In the project, he will analyze the three-dimensional state of the magnetosphere -- the region of space around Earth where the dominant magnetic field is that of Earth rather than that of interplanetary space. He will do this using the output of magnetohydrodynamic simulations.
The primary objective of this work is to understand the magnetospheric manifestations and drivers of auroral boundary expansion during extreme events. The work toward this objective will include: (1) identifying the cause of spatiotemporal localization of extreme enhancements in the geomagnetic and geoelectric field during extreme events and (2) quantifying model uncertainty under extreme driving conditions.
###