ALBERT

Description: This final report describes the efforts accomplished during the grant s period of performance, covering the period of 15 March 2001 to 14 March 2004, of an unsolicited NASA proposal entitled Constellation Pathfinder Technology Development. We have completed the goals set forth in the proposed research objectives. An overview of these studies is summarized.

Description: This final report describes the efforts accomplished during the grant's period of performance, covering the period of 1 May 1997 to 30 April 2001, of a NASA Supporting Research and Technology Program grant under the Ionospheric, Thermospheric, and Mesospheric Physics component of the Sun-Earth Connections program. We have met and exceeded the goals set forth in the proposed research objectives. Referred publications have appeared in the scientific literature and several others are in the review process. In addition, numerous invited and contributed presentations of these studies were presented at national and international meetings during the performance period. One graduate student completed his PhD and won two AGU Best Student Paper awards based on research funded by this grant. These studies are summarized below. The science goal delineated in the initial proposal was "to systematically explore the temporal and spatial characteristics of the aurora in a way heretofore impossible, using data from two coplanar DMSP spacecraft." We accomplished this goal through a series of related studies. One study used these unique data to establish the role of Ps6 waves in coupling between the magnetosphere and the auroral ionosphere (omega bands) during the recovery phase of a magnetic storm; the published paper demonstrated the causal relationships between geospace processes occurring in different regions and established a simple conceptual model based on the fortuitous constellation of observations. In the second string of papers, we used these data to explore velocity-dispersed ions (VDIS) in and near the cusp, to test region identification models, and to look at space/time structure of auroral precipitation. On the first topic, the unique DMSP data revealed a remarkable double VDIS with a latitudinal overlap. This could only be explained in terms of a unified reconnection geometry that builds on several earlier unrelated models. The paper outlining this discovery has drawn considerable attention from the community and is currently in press - it adds significantly to the debate over whether reconnection is study state versus bursty and patchy versus global. The second paper develops the model further by incorporating the electron signature - these ionospheric particle precipitation signatures reveal the presence of magnetospheric "fossilized" FTEs, demonstrating the power of ionospheric measurements as a remote diagnostic of magnetospheric processes. Finally, the general nature of aurora] stability and coherence and region identification by particle characteristics were fully explored in a final paper. We identify candidate mechanisms controlling coherence time scales and length scales and refine boundary region identification criteria. We also use the dual-DMSP observations to identify the open and closed LLBL region and related its significance to the generalized bursty, multiple x-line model developed in the first paper. All of these topics are chapters of Dr. Boudouridis' recently completed PhD thesis.

Description: This final report describes the efforts accomplished during the grant's period of performance, covering the period of 15 January 1999 to 14 January 2001, of a NASA ISTP/SolarMax Extended Science Program grant. We have completed many of the goals set forth in the proposed research objectives and our efforts in this research area continue in a related grant from NASA. Studies have been published and papers are being written, and numerous invited and contributed presentations of these studies have been presented at national and international meetings during the performance period.

Description: This final report describes the efforts accomplished during the grant's period of performance, covering the period of 15 March 1997 to 14 March 2001, of a NASA Space Physics New Mission Concepts grant. We have met and far exceeded the goals set forth in the proposed research objectives. The results of several studies are published in the refereed engineering and scientific literature. In addition, numerous invited and contributed presentations of these studies have been presented at national and international meetings during the performance period. We developed a mission concept that could allow for hundreds of one kilogram spacecraft to be placed in orbit with a single mothership and we used the funding to move rapidly forward with the nanosatellite design needed to envision any large constellation.