10/17/2022
By Lynne Schaufenbil
On Oct. 27 at 11 a.m., Cheng Sheng from Unversity of Texas at Arlington will present: Multi-scale Geomagnetic Forcing and Their Impact on the Earth’s Upper Atmosphere.
Abstract
The upper atmosphere, 100-600 km above the ground, is constantly under the influence of the solar wind and magnetosphere forcing. During geomagnetically active times, a large amount of energy is deposited at high latitudes through magnetosphere-ionosphere-thermosphere coupling and causes substantial disturbances in both neutrals and plasma globally. These disturbances include but not limited to enhanced neutral density at low-Earth orbit (LEO) satellite altitudes, which strongly affects satellite operation; complex plasma structures, which may impact satellite communication and navigation; and intensified geomagnetically induced currents (GICs), which can cause damage and disruption to power distribution networks. Understanding and being able to predict the active-time variability of the upper atmosphere is crucial to mitigate the above-mentioned risks. This talk presents recent progress in modeling the active-time ionospheric and thermospheric disturbances. Specifically, multi-scale geomagnetic forcing derived from high-resolution Super Dual Auroral Radar Network (SuperDARN) and Time History of Events and Macroscale Interactions during Substorms (THEMIS) All‐Sky Imager (ASI) observations are used to drive the global ionosphere-thermosphere model (GITM). The ionospheric and thermospheric response to the multi-scale geomagnetic forcing, especially the meso-scale component, will be discussed.
Short Bio
Cheng Sheng received his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in Space Physics from the Peking University in 2008 and 2011, respectively. After that, he went to the University of Texas at Arlington and earned his Ph.D. in Applied Physics in 2015. He then spent two years at the High Altitude Observatory (HAO) of the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) for his postdoc training. He returned to the UT Arlington upper atmospheric research group in 2018 as a research scientist and was promoted to an assistant professor of research in September, 2022. Sheng is a user of the global ionosphere-thermosphere model (GITM). His main research interest is the ionospheric and thermospheric disturbances during geomagnetically active times. He is also interested in space weather effects on ground and in the near-Earth environment.
If you are interested in participating, please contact Lynne_Schaufenbil@uml.edu for the Zoom link.