We use electric and magnetic field data from MMS spacecraft between 2016 and 2017 tostatistically investigate earthward propagating plasma flow bursts and field-aligned currents(FACs) inside the plasma sheet of the geomagnetic tail. We observe that the occurrence rateof flow burst peaks around the midnight region with decreasing trend towards Earth and theplasma sheet flanks. Further, we distinguish between long and short FACs. Long FACs laston average 6 sec and have a magnitude of 5-20 nA/m 2 . Short FACs last on average 10 timesshorter and have an magnitude of 10-50 nA/m 2 . Both, long and short FACs occur on averageone time per flow burst, on minimum 0 times and on maximum 4 times per flow burst. Intotal, 43 % of the observed FACs are located in a flow burst, 40 % before and 17 % right after aflow burst.

Experimental results concerning plasma turbulence pumped in theionosphere by powerful radio waves suggest that the turbulence is due todeterministic chaos. To investigate the possibility of deterministic chaosin the ionosphere coupled wave systems have been studied to see chaoticdynamics. If coupled waves can exhibit chaos it is a possible way tomodel ionospheric chaos. The result showed that chaos was present inboth wave systems studied which means that they could possibly explainthe chaos, to verify this more studies needs to be done on theparameters relevant to the coupled wave systems in the ionosphere andfind if they are in a regime where chaos develops / Studier av plasmaturbulens i jonosfären som pumpas av kraftfulla radiovågor antyder att turbulensen är kopplat till deterministiskt kaos. För att undersöka möjligheten för deterministiskt kaos i jonosfären studeras kopplade vågsystem om de kan innehålla kaotiska regimer. Om dessa system visar kaotiskt beteende skulle de kunna användas för att beskriva kaos i jonosfären. Resultatet visade att kaos var närvarande i de kopplade vågsystem som studerats, för att verifiera om de kan användas för att beskriva kaos i jonosfären måste närmare studier av de parametrar som modellen använder sig av göras för att se om de faller inom ett intervall där kaos uppstår.

Neutrons produced in fusion reactions in a magnetically confined plasma carry information about the distributions and densities of the fuel ions in the plasma. This thesis presents work where various theoretical models of different fuel ion distributions in the plasma are used to calculate modeled components of the neutron energy spectrum. The calculated components can then be compared with measured data, either to benchmark and validate the model or to derive various plasma parameters from the experimental data. Neutron spectra measured with the spectrometers TOFOR and the MPR, which are both installed at the JET tokamak in England, are used for this purpose. The thesis is based on three papers. The first paper presents the analysis of TOFOR data from plasmas heated with neutral beams and radio frequency waves tuned to the third harmonic of the deuterium cyclotron frequency, which creates fast (supra thermal) ions in the MeV range. It is found that effects of the finite Larmor radii of the fast ions need to be included in the modeling in order to understand the data. These effects are important for fast ion measurements if there is a gradient in the fast ion distribution function with a scale length that is comparable to - or smaller than - the width of the field of view of the measuring instrument, and if this scale length is comparable to - or smaller than - the Larmor radii of the fast ions. The second paper presents calculations of the neutron energy spectrum from the T(t,n)4He reaction, for JET relevant fuel ion distributions. This is to to form a starting point for the investigation of the possibility to obtain fast ion information from the t-t neutron spectrum, in a possible future deuterium-tritium campaign at JET. The t-t spectrum is more challenging to analyze than the d-d and d-t cases, since this reaction has three (rather than two) particles in the final state, which results in a broad continuum of neutron energies rather than a peak. However, the presence of various final state interactions - in particular between the neutron and the 4He - might still allow for spectrometry analysis. Finally, in Paper III, a method to derive the fuel ion ratio, nt/nd, is presented and applied to MPR data from the JET d-t campaign in 1997. The trend in the results are consistent with Penning trap measurements of the fuel ion ratio at the plasma edge, but the absolute numbers are not the same. Measuring the fuel ion ratio in the core plasma is an important task for fusion research, and also a very complicated one. Future work should aim at measuring this quantity in several independent ways, which should then be cross checked against each other.

The ESA Rosetta spacecraft investigated comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko duringtwo years from August 2014 to the end of September 2016. The dual Langmuir probewas used to measure plasma parameters including the thermal energy of theelectrons. The observed thermal energy (or temperature) of the electrons was ratherhigh, in the range 5-10 eV almost throughout the mission. However, near perihelionthe Langmuir probe measurements indicated the prevalence of two electronpopulations with distinct temperatures, one hot (5-10 eV) and one cold (less than 1eV). It has been hypothesized that the electrons of the colder population wereformed relatively close to the nucleus and that they subsequently cooled by inelasticcollisions with the neutral gas. In this project work we develop a model for studyingelectron cooling in a cometary coma. The model takes into account collisions withwater molecules as well as the influence of a radial ambipolar electric field. / Rymdsonden Rosetta från ESA undersökte kometen 67P/Churyumov Gerasimenkounder mer än två år, från augusti 2014 till slutet av september 2016.En Langumirprob användes för att undersökta plasmamiljön runt kometen, tillexempel elektronernas termiska energi. Den observerade termiska energin förelektronerna (eller elektrontemperaturen) var ganska hög, ca 5-10 eV undernästan hela uppdraget, men när kometen var nära perihelium detekterade instrumentenäven kalla elektroner, med en energi under 1 eV, distinkta från devarma. En hypotes är att dessa kalla elektroner bildas nära kärnan av att varmaelektroner genomgår inelastiska kollisioner med den neutrala gasen och tapparsin energi. I detta projekt utvecklar vi en modell för att studera elektronernasbeteende i koman. Modellen tar hänsyn till kollisioner med neutrala vattenmolekylersåväl som påverkan av ett radiellt ambipolärt elektriskt fält.

Present-day Mars is a cold and dry planet with a thin CO2-dominated atmosphere comprising only a few ­­­mbar pressure at low altitudes. However, the Martian surface is marked with valley networks, hydrated mineral clays, carbonates and the remains of deltas and meandering rivers, i.e. traces of an active hydrological cycle present early in the planet's geological history. A strong greenhouse effect, and thus a thicker atmosphere, would have been required to sustain a sufficiently warm environment, particularly under the weaker luminosity of the early Sun. The fate of this early atmosphere is currently unknown. While several mechanisms can remove atmospheric mass over time, a prominent hypothesis suggests that the lack of an intrinsic Earth-like global magnetic dipole has allowed the solar wind to erode the early Martian atmosphere by imparting energy to the planet's ionosphere which subsequently flows out as ion escape, over time depleting the greenhouse gasses and collapsing the ancient hydrological cycle. Previous studies have found insignificant ion escape rates under present-day conditions, however, the young Sun emitted significantly stronger solar wind and photoionizing radiation flux compared to the present. The geological record establishes the time of collapse of the hydrological cycle, estimated to have occurred in the mid-late Hesperian period (~3.3 billion years ago) at latest. To constrain the amount of atmosphere lost through ion escape since, we use the extensive database of ion flux measurements from the Analyzer of Space Plasmas and Energetic Atoms (ASPERA-3) particles package on the Mars Express orbiter (2004-present) to quantify the ion escape rate dependence on upstream solar wind and solar radiation conditions. The Martian ion escape rate is shown to be insensitive to solar wind parameters with a weak inverse dependence on solar wind dynamic pressure, and linearly dependent on solar ionizing photon flux, indicating efficient screening of the bulk ionosphere by the induced magnetic fields. The impact of an extreme coronal mass ejection is studied and found to have no significant effect on the ion escape rate. Instead, intense solar wind is shown to only increase the escaping energy flux, i.e. total power of escaping ions, without increasing the rate by accelerating already escaping ions. The orientation of the strongest magnetized crustal fields are shown to modulate the ion escape rate, though to have no significant time-averaged effect. We also study the influence of solar wind and solar radiation on the major Martian plasma boundaries and discuss factors that might limit the ion escape rate, including solar wind-ion escape coupling, which is found to be ≲1% and decreasing with increased solar wind dynamic pressure. The significant escape rate dependencies found are extrapolated back in time, considering the evolution of solar wind and ionizing radiation, and shown to account for only 4.8 ± 1.1 mbar equivalent surface pressure loss since the time of collapse of the Martian hydrosphere in the Hesperian, with ~6 mbar as an upper estimate. Extended to the late Noachian period (3.9 billion years ago), the found dependencies can only account for ≲10 mbar removed through ion escape, an insignificant amount compared to the ≳1 bar surface pressure required to sustain a warm climate on early Mars.

This paper examines the neutral coma of comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko by using measurements of charged particles (water ions) and tracing them back to their place of ionisation. The measurements were taken from Rosetta’s Ion Composition Analyser. The simulations made use of an existing program which traces particles forward, which was changed to trace particles backwards, with new conditions for terminating the simulation. Two types of simulations were made. The first type is referred to as ”one-day simulations”. In these, simulations are made using data from a single occasion, with nine occasions studied per selected day. The days were selected so that the spacecraft was in different positions in relation to the comet. The second is referred to as the ”full-hemisphere” simulation. In this simulation, data from all usable days are used to produce an image of the hemisphere facing the Sun. The full-hemisphere simulation suffers from lack of simultaneous measurements, and indeed it is impossible to obtain in-situ measurements at all positions at once. Both simulations could be improved using more precise models, which could not be done within the allotted time of this work.

In the search for natural orbital angular momentum (OAM) effects, some of the first incoherent scatter experiments with twisted radar beams during aurora were conducted at Poker Flat Incoherent Scatter Radar (PFISR), Alaska, USA, in October 2012. Experimental data of scatter from beam configurations with opposite twists were investigated. By the use of hypothesis tests in combination with Monte Carlo simulations together with traditional estimations of the mean and confidence interval, asymmetries between scatter of radar beams with opposite twists were identified for an integration time of at least 30 minutes. Asymmetries were detected in the internal radar noise too, but not necessarily with the same signs as for the asymmetries from the ionospheric signals. The asymmetries identified could be due to amplified noise for signals coming from intense aurora or perhaps the rectangular-shaped antenna array used at PFISR. These two possible causes need to be ruled out before suggesting that the asymmetries identified are an outcome of OAM effects present in the ionosphere.

An important part of the fusion research program is to understand and control the large number of plasma instabilities that a fusion plasma can exhibit. One such instability is known as the “sawtooth” instability, which is a perturbation in the plasma electric and magnetic fields that manifests itself as periodic relaxations of the temperature and density in the plasma center. The aim of this project was to investigate how the fuel ions in a fusion plasma react to the sawtooth instability. We were able to implement a model of the plasma electromagnetic field during a sawtooth relaxation into an existing code that computes the orbits of the fuel ions in the tokamak magnetic field. To this end, it was necessary to modify the orbit code to allow for non-zero electric fields, and for time-varying fields. In order to validate the new additions to the code, we compared simulated results to analytical ones. The model of the sawtooth electromagnetic fields required for our simulations was set up within a different student project. However, due to unforeseen complications, only the magnetic (not the electric) field contribution was available to us during our project, but once the electric field is available it is straightforward to include in our code. Our simulations did not exhibit any noticeable perturbation to the particle orbit during a sawtooth crash. However, before the electric field contribution is included it is not possible to draw any physics conclusions from these results. Our code could also be used as a foundation for future projects since it is possible (with further implementations to the existing code) to simulate how the spatial profile of the neutron emission is expected to vary during the sawtooth. These simulations can be compared against experimental measurements of the neutron emission profile in order to investigate the accuracy of the sawtooth model under consideration.

The aim of the project is to investigate the characteristics and causes of two different types of bow shocks at Mars. We define Type 1 as an undefined, drawn out ramp, and Type 2 as a shorter duration ramp that has clearer characteristics and behaves more like a step increase in the magnetic field. A total of forty five events of the two different types were investigated using data from 2014-2015 from NASA’s MAVEN spacecraft. The Power Spectral Density of the magnetic field is calculated for downstream/ramp/upstream intervals. The normal is calculated with a mixed-mode coplanarity model. Proton, alpha particle and atomic oxygen density are also calculated. Results show higher frequencies for nose events of Type 1, and lower for flank events of Type 1. No such pattern can be seen in Type 2 events. Proton and alpha-particles are shown to be shocked, and their densities are slightly higher at the flanks as compared to the nose of the bow shock. Atomic oxygen density stays constant before and after the bow shock, likely due to the fact that the oxygen originates mostly from the exosphere rather than from the solar wind. Ion densities seem not to be affected by whether the event is Type 1 or 2.

The DDFTU code has been modified and updated to study the transport of dust in the reverse field pinch (RFP) EXTRAP-T2R. The DDFTU code solves the coupled equations of charging, heating and motion of a dust grain immersed in a plasma whose profiles are given. Updates of the code have been introduced to include (i) non-steady state heat balance and phase transitions models, (ii) realistic boundary conditions for dust-wall collisions, and (iii) a radius and temperature-dependent thermal radiation model, for which a dedicated code has been developed. The models for secondary electron emission (SEE), thermionic emission and magnetic dipole force have been refined as well, the sensitivity to SEE and thermal radiation modelling being highlighted. Similarly to limiter tokamak configuration, the ion drag is confirmed to be the main force driving the dust dynamics. However for RFP configurations, the strong contribution of the electric force is demonstrated. The latter plays an important role in the RFP edge plasma due to (i) the large value of the radial electric field and (ii) its sign which is opposite to typical tokamak edge electric fields. A comparison with available experimental data - dust collection in the mid-plane - has been carried out. For this purpose, the dust toroidal transport asymmetry has been evaluated numerically from the computation of the time dependent velocity distribution of an ensemble of many particles launched from the vessel wall. An empirical scaling law for the asymmetry has been found in the high dust inertia regime.