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Geospace Physics
Branch, Code 612.3
Specializing
in Mesospheric, Thermospheric, Ionospheric, and
Magnetospheric Research
Mission Statement:
The Geospace Physics Branch's mission is to advance knowledge of the
coupled solar wind - magnetosphere - ionosphere system by means of
experimental and theoretical investigations and to provide leadership
to NASA's Space Science Enterprise by serving as Project Scientists for
Sun-Earth Connection Theme space flight programs.
April 18, 2005 - New Geospace GI Award:
Dr. Guan Le (612.3) has had a proposal to the Geospace Guest Investigator
NRA selected by NASA HQ for 3 years of funding (Total Award: $293K). The title
of the proposal is "An investigation of flux transfer events (FTEs) using multiple spacecraft
and ground based observations using global MHD modeling". The main objective of
Dr. Le's research project is to understand the nature of the time-varying reconnection
that is responsible for FTE formation and evolution by using MHD simulations
to place the local spacecraft observations in a global context.
August 10, 2005 - C/NOFS Satellite EMI Testing Underway:
The C/NOFS satellite is undergoing EMI testing at General Dynamics in
Phoenix, Arizona this week (August 8-12). The Vector Electric Field
Instrument (VEFI) built by Code 612.3 scientists Robert Pfaff
and Doug Rowland, has performed well in all
tests. Furthermore, this highly sensitive electric field detector
has been used to unveil interference sources radiated by the
satellite, including very small variations to the star sensor and
other subsystems. For these tests, the output of the General
Dyanmics EMI test antenna situated 1 meter from the spacecraft is fed
back into the VEFI electric field detector burst memory input for
high time/spectral resolution wave measurements and subsequent
identification of the spacecraft interference.
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