Understanding the Energy Pathways of Earth's Magnetosphere

Electronic devices are part of our everyday lives. They allow us to message each other, provide energy for our homes, and control critical systems like air traffic, but they are vulnerable. Space Weather describes how electric and magnetic fields change around Earth.

Just like normal weather there are storms in space and when a Space Weather "geomagnetic storm" happens, our electronic devices can be damaged so it is extremely important that we can predict when these storms will happen. I aim to gain new insights into the physics behind Space Weather events.

The magnetosphere is the magnetic environment that surrounds Earth like a bubble. It is filled with plasma, an electrically conducting mix of particles, which creates electric and magnetic fields as it moves. Understanding how plasma moves is crucial for understanding Space Weather.

Particles from the Sun, can put energy into the magnetosphere where it is stored until it can be released. When the energy is released, or unloaded, some of it can end up in the atmosphere through the aurora and some of it can be put into the plasma in the magnetosphere. When the plasma's energy levels are particularly high, a geomagnetic storm happens.

How the energy unloading happens in a storm is poorly understood. This is because it happens with a delay from the dayside loading, which makes them tricky to model. My research uses a combination of data from spacecraft and ground-based observatories to understand the amount of energy that is put into the magnetosphere and how this changes over time.

With the knowledge of the time-history, and measurements of the unloading, we will then be able to model the magnetosphere's response to the driving using novel methods.

My research aims to understand the timescales of these responses, which will allow us to understand the physics behind Space Weather. This will lead to long-term benefits for society by strengthening the foundations for predicting geomagnetic storms.