Inner Magnetosphere Response to Solar Wind Structures

The NASA Postdoctoral Program (NPP) offers unique research opportunities to highly-talented scientists to engage in ongoing NASA research projects at a NASA Center, NASA Headquarters, or at a NASA-affiliated research institute. These one- to three-year fellowships are competitive and are designed to advance NASA's missions in space science, Earth science, aeronautics, space operations, exploration systems, and astrobiology. This specific opportunity involves modeling both the solar wind magnetopause interaction (reconnection, pressure balance) and the inner magnetospheric response (radiation belts, ring current, and the wave environment) using tools such as global MHD simulations, and coupled bounce averaged Vlasov kinetic models of the radiation belts. The research focuses on understanding how the Earth's inner magnetosphere ring current and radiation belts respond to solar wind structures such as Coronal Mass Ejections (CMEs), Corotating Interaction Regions (CIRs), high-speed streams and other structures. The position is located at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland.