Peter Delamere
University of Alaska Fairbanks, AK·Physics
Planets with magnetic fields sit inside magnetospheres, bubble-like cavities in space carved out by that field. A central puzzle is how plasma (electrically charged gas) moves into or out of these bubbles.
- Fields
Physics
Astronomy & Astrophysics
Earth & Environmental Science
- Topics
magnetosphere
space plasma physics
plasma transport
- Grants
- 1 known grant, through Aug 2027
What they work on
- Compare how plasma is transported outward at Jupiter and Saturn and inward at Earth, focusing on the shared region where the magnetic field changes from a dipole shape to a stretched shape.
- Quantify how particles move through the magnetosphere using high-resolution global GAMERA simulations, which model the plasma as a magnetized fluid (magnetohydrodynamics).
- Use information theory, a mathematical way to infer cause and effect, to trace which global-scale dynamics produce differences between the day and night sides of a magnetosphere.
- Explain how flows and magnetodisc structure carry mass, momentum, energy and magnetic flux, and how they create density structure while keeping magnetic flux conserved.
More about the research
At Earth, the solar wind, a fast stream of plasma from the Sun, pushes in from outside. At Jupiter and Saturn, plasma comes from the moons Io and Enceladus and has to be carried outward into the solar wind. Understanding this transport matters for space weather, the disturbances in near-Earth space that can affect satellites and other space-based equipment.
Why it matters
Satellites and other space-based assets operate inside Earth's magnetosphere and are exposed to space weather. A better understanding of how plasma and energy move through this region could improve space-weather knowledge that helps protect them. Jupiter and Saturn generate plasma internally, so comparing them with Earth tests the same physics over a much wider range of conditions than Earth alone provides.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
Adam Michael
Johns Hopkins University, MD·Physics
Analyze a large database of interplanetary shocks observed simultaneously by multiple spacecraft to establish how different regions of the magnetosphere, Earth's protective magnetic bubble, respond to shocks with differing properties.
Kun Zhang
Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University-Daytona Beach, FL·Earth & Environmental Science
Measure how the reflection rate, velocity, temperatures and velocity distribution types of freshly reflected ions at Earth's bow shock depend on solar wind speed, interplanetary magnetic field, Mach number, beta and shock angle, using satellite measurements.
Katrina Bossert
Arizona State University Campus Immersion, AZ·Physics
Establish an interdisciplinary space physics program focused on space plasma, ionospheric dynamics, the solar wind, and how the heliosphere responds to solar events.
The school
University of Alaska Fairbanks: 7 labs on PI Pages, $246M a year on research, 31 research doctorates a year.
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