EP 410 - Space Physics
Embry-Riddle University
  Spring 2017 
M. Anthony Reynolds



INFORMATION

Required Texts:
  Fundamentals of Space Physics, (14 Mb) by Hughes, 2016
  Introduction to Plasma Physics by Chen, 1984

Optional Texts:
Introduction to Space Physics, by Kivelson and Russell, Cambridge Univ Press, 1995

Physics of Space Plasmas,  by Parks
Physics of Solar System Plasmas, by Cravens


See the syllabus for more detailed information.



Handouts
Reynolds "Fluids: A brief introduction" (version 2)
Crimaldi "A Primer on Index Notation" (see also Harlen)
Hathaway "The Solar Cycle
Owens & Forsiyth "The Heliospheric Magnetic Field

Fried "Introduction to plasma physics"  (see also "Intro to Plasmas" by Hutchinson)
Naval Research Laboratory "Plasma Formulary"

Magnetic Reynolds number and magnetic reconnection
Reynolds "Dimensional Analysis" (derivation of, e.g., the magnetic Reynolds number)
Schindler & Hornig "Magnetic Reconnection" Encyclopedia of Astronomy and Astrophysics

MHD waves; cyclotron waves
Fried One Fluid MHD 



Overview of Space Physics

  MetEd at UCAR  (you will need to sign up - it's free)


PROJECTS
NOTE: All submissions below are due via email (reynodb2 at erau.edu)  by 23:59 UT on the given date. After this time, the score will be reduced by 1 point, with an additional 1 point reduction every 12 hours.

Essay
Thu 19 Jan 2017 - draft: brief overview + 2 paragraphs, LaTeX not required (10)
Thu 26 Jan 2017 - final report due (20)
 Report template (LaTeX source)
 Habbal & Woo "The solar wind and the Sun-Earth link"

Project 1 - Sunspot cycle analysis
Tue 24 Jan 2017 - run code, submit plot in "pgn" format (5)
Tue 31 Jan 2017 - 3 figures smoothing + text (10)
Tue 7 Feb 2017 - Fourier transform figure + text (15)
Tue 14 Feb 2017 - final report (30)

Background reading:
  Galileo's sunspot drawings 
  Snodgrass & Ulrich 1990 "Rotation of Doppler features in the solar photosphere"
  Solar cycle progression from NOAA Space Weather Prediction Center 
Relevant files and websites:
  Report instructions (LaTeX source) (final version)
  Historical sunspot numbers from SIDC
  Discrete Fourier transform  from Numerical Recipes
  Smoothing techniques from Numerical Recipes 
  sunspots.m  - basic Matlab source to read and plot running average (final version)
  Examples of how to write figure captions here 

Project 2 - Charged particle dynamics
Thu 23 Feb 2017 - Step 1 - run code, write up short section on cyclotron motion (5)
Thu 2 Mar 2017 - Step 2 - modify code, write up short section on grad B drift (10)
Thu 9 Mar 2017 - Step 3 - modify code, write up short section on magnetic mirror motion (15)
Thu 23 Mar 2017 - Step 4 - modify code, write up short section on motion in a dipole field (30)
Thu 30 Mar 2017 - turn in final report (60)
total points - 120

Relevant files
  Report instructions (LaTeX source)
  ParticlePush.m 

Journal article presentation
Tue 4 Apr 2017 - select article from 2015 GRL (5)
Tue 11 Apr 2017 - one paragraph summarizing main results (10) - This serves as an "abstract submission" and 23:59 UT is a hard deadline for admission to the conference
13-18 Apr 2017 - practice talk (15)
20-27 Apr 2017 - presentations (30)




  Problems 


LINKS

Best movies from Soho 

Space physics books in the ERAU library:
The Solar-Terrestrial Environment / Hargreaves - QC
879 .H278 1992
Space Physics / Kallenrode - QC 718 .K28 2001
Physics of the Space Environment
/ Gombosi - QC
861.2 .G64 2004
Physics of Space Plasmas
/ Parks - QC
879 H278 1992
The Solar-Terrestrial Environment
/ Hargreaves - QC
879 H278 1992

Other relevant books in the ERAU library:
Introduction to Electrodyamics / Griffiths - QC680 .G74 1999

Online tutorials
  The exploration of the Earth's magnetosphere 

The Earth's Dynamo
  Walter Elsasser (obituary)




PAPERS

Akasofu, 2011 "A historical review of the geomagnetic storm-producing plasma flows from the Sun" pdf 
Daglis et al.,1999 "The terrestrial ring current: Origin, formation, and decay" pdf 
Howard, 1975 "The rotation of the sun" pdf 
Owens and Forsyth, 2013 "The heliospheric magnetic field" online 

Helge Kragh 2009 "The green line: a chapter in the history of auroral physics"  pdf 

Stump & Pollack 1998 "A current sheet model for the Earth's magnetic field" pdf 
Akasofu1990 "Is the Earth's dipole field actually inclined with respect to the rotation axis?" pdf