Plasma waves in the Geospace

This post is also available in: Japanese

‘Geospace’ is the space around the Earth that consist of plasma (charged particles) originating from the Earth’s atmosphere and the solar wind. The electromagnetic waves propagating in the plasma are called ‘plasma waves’. In space, collisions between particles rarely occur, but the motion of particles is scattered by ‘collisions’ between plasma waves and charged particles. As a result, the enegetic particles precipiatte into the Earth’s atmosphere and cause polar auroras and affect the composition in the upper atmosphere. Therefore, studying the generation and propagation of plasma waves is important topic for understanding the connection between space and the Earth’s atmosphere. Using observations of plasma waves by the Arase satellite and groundbased aurora observations, we are investigating how plasma waves propagate through geospace and scatter enegetic charged particles, and studying the effects of space on the Earth’s atmosphere.

This post is also available in: Japanese