Topic: "After 36 Years Voyager 1 Reaches Interstellar Space" (Video)
[more]Professor Barrett Rogers's research in theoretical and computational plasma physics addresses problems in turbulence, a ubiquitous feature of plasma systems. It can arise, for example, from non-uniformities in plasma flows, or be driven by instabilities arising from non-uniformities in the plasma density or temperatures. In magnetic fusion experiments, small-scale instabilities generate turbulence at small scales, which in turn transport plasma and heat from the core of fusion reactors to the walls.
[more]Professor Barrett Rogers's research in theoretical and computational plasma physics addresses problems in magnetic reconnection. Space and laboratory plasmas such as the sun, the magnetosphere, and laboratory fusion experiments often store large quantities of energy in embedded magnetic fields. Magnetic reconnection is a ubiquitous process that can convert some fraction of this energy, often explosively, into high speed flows and thermal energy.
[more]The evolution of the Earth's Van Allen Radiation Belts is being modeled by following test particle trajectories in 2D and 3D simulations using 3D magnetohydrodynamic fields from the Lyon-Fedder-Mobarry MHD code driven by measured plasma parameters from spacecraft in the solar wind upstream from Earth. Global electric and magnetic field structure and computed particle distributions in momentum and spatial location are compared with measurements from the recently launched (August 30, 2012) Van Allen Probes satellites. This work is supported by the NASA Heliophysics Directorate.
[more]The undergraduates in the JPL-sponsored GreenCube project of the Lynch Rocket Lab, are developing a CubeSat-class autonomous sensor payload, which they fly on balloons across New Hampshire and this spring will be floating in an array down the Connecticut (and other) River(s). ``Cubesat'' is a small satellite prototype established by CalPoly and Stanford Universities. Similar satellites have been used by many other universities and student satellite programs because of its relatively easy and inexpensive design.
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