It is demonstrated that control software updates for the magnetic confinement fusion experiment EXTRAP T2R can enable novel studies of plasma physics. Specifically, it is shown that the boundary radial magnetic field in T2R can be maintained at finite levels by feedback. System identification methods to measure in situ magnetohydrodynamic stability are developed and applied with encouraging results. Subsequently, results from closed-loop identification are used for retooling the T2R regulator. The track of research here pursued could possibly be relevant for future thermonuclear fusion reactors. / QC 20100518

The reversed-field pinch (RFP) is a magnetic confinement fusion (MCF) device. It exhibits a variety of unstable modes that can be explained by magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) theory. A particular unstable mode that is treated in this work is the resistive wall mode (RWM), which occurs when the shell of the device has finite conductivity. Application of control engineering tools appears to be important for the operation of the RFP. A model-based control approach is pursued to stabilize the RWM. The approach consists of experimental modeling of RWM using a class of system identification techniques. The obtained model is then used as a basis for Mode Predictive Control (MPC) design. The MPC employs the model to build predictions of the system and find a control input that optimizes the predicted behavior of the system. It is shown that the formulation of the MPC allows the user to incorporate several physics relevant phenomena aside from RWMs. The results are encouraging for MPC to be a useful tool for future MCF operation. / <p>QC 20150605</p>

Ground-based and in-situ observations of the aurora demonstrate an extreme richness in fine structure, with spatial scales down to tens of metres and time variations occurring on a fraction of a second. To further our understanding of the aurora, it is esssential to understand the mechanisms responsible for the small-scale structuring, since this is an intrinsic property of the auroral plasma. Still many questions about dynamics and structuring of aurora on small scales remain unanswered. In this thesis the low-light optical instrument ASK (Auroral Structure and Kinetics) is used to image small-scale structures in the aurora at very high spatial and temporal resolution. ASK is a multi-spectral instrument, imaging the aurora in three selected emission lines simultaneously. This provides information on the energy of the precipitating electrons. The SIF (Spectrographic Imaging Facility) instrument has been used in conjunction with ASK, to give a more complete picture of the spectral characteristics of the aurora, and to determine the contamination of the emission lines by other emissions. Data from ASK and SIF is used to study the relation between the morphology and dynamics of small-scale structures in the aurora and the energy of the precipitating electrons. By comparing electron density profiles provided by EISCAT (European Incoherent SCATter) measurements with modeling results, information on characteristic energy and energy flux of the precipitating electrons can be obtained. One of the ASK channels is imaging a metastable O+ emission, which has a lifetime of 5 s. By tracing the afterglow in this channel optically a direct measure of the E × B drift and thus of the local ionospheric electric fields is provided. / QC 20101109

This research project centres on advancing data analysis techniques using the Magnetic Proton Recoil Upgrade Neutron Spectrometer (MPRu) for neutron emission spectroscopy during the deuterium tritium experimental campaign (DTE2) at the Joint European Torus (JET). The study aimed to address three pivotal questions, each with implications for optimizing data accuracy, quality, and utility. The first question focused on determining the optimal short-gate settings for the MPRu. Extensive analysis revealed that conventional metrics, such as the Full Width at Half Maximum (FWHM) and spatial positioning of the proton island, were inadequate for precise short-gate configuration. It was concluded that the existing settings, characterized by a +30 offset from the signal onset, proved to be sufficient. This choice was driven by the necessity to distinguish between escape events, shadow events, and the proton island when plotting signals in a 2-D graph, proving effective across all detector channels. Accurate proton counting hinges on the precise assessment of protons within the escape event region, a task complicated by the interference of background events. This study investigated the point at which the accuracy of the escape event region diminishes by comparing the relative count with simulated data. Results demonstrated that higher-energy signals, positioned farther from the background-concentrated origin, yielded more accurate counts. Additionally, a correction factor based on simulated data is suggested for the unaccounted proton signals. The third question explored was the feasibility of modelling the proton island's location based on proton energy and the characteristics of the phoswhich scintillator detector. While initially promising, the model showed of limited use. The biggest limiting factor was the inconsistencies that originate in the detector themselves. It is not possible to account for the unique characteristics of each single detector, using the methods developed here. This could be changed if the individual characteristics of the detectors are taken into account in a future analysis.

Velocity distributions are a key to understanding the interplay between particles and waves in a plasma. Any deviation from a Maxwellian distribution may be unstable and result in wave generation. Using data from the ion mass spectrometer IMA (Ion Mass Analyzer) and the magnetometer MAG on-board Venus Express,  ion distributions in the plasma environment of Venus are studied. The focus lies on temperature anisotropy, that is, the difference between the ion temperature parallel and perpendicular to the background magnetic field. This study presents spatial maps of the average ratio between the perpendicular temperature <img src="http://www.diva-portal.org/cgi-bin/mimetex.cgi?T_%5Cperp" /> and parallel temperature <img src="http://www.diva-portal.org/cgi-bin/mimetex.cgi?T_%5Cparallel" />, both for proton and heavy ions (atomic oxygen, molecularoxygen and carbon dioxide). Furthermore average values of <img src="http://www.diva-portal.org/cgi-bin/mimetex.cgi?T_%5Cperp" /> and <img src="http://www.diva-portal.org/cgi-bin/mimetex.cgi?T_%5Cparallel" /> are calculated for different spatial areas around Venus. The results show that proton <img src="http://www.diva-portal.org/cgi-bin/mimetex.cgi?T_%5Cperp" /> and <img src="http://www.diva-portal.org/cgi-bin/mimetex.cgi?T_%5Cparallel" /> are nearly equal in the solar wind. At the bow shock and in the magnetosheath, the ratio <img src="http://www.diva-portal.org/cgi-bin/mimetex.cgi?T_%5Cperp/T_%5Cparallel" /> increases to provide conditions favoring mirror mode wave generation. An even higher anisotropy is found in the magnetotail with <img src="http://www.diva-portal.org/cgi-bin/mimetex.cgi?T_%5Cperp/T_%5Cparallel%5Capprox%202" /> for both protons and heavy ions.

The mechanisms involved in the transfer of mass and energy from the solar wind to any planetary magnetosphere is considered an important topic in space physics. With the use of the Mercury spacecraft MESSENGER's data, it has been possible to study these processes in an environment different, yet similar, to Earth's. These data have resulted in new knowledge advancing not only the extraterrestrial space plasma research, but also the general space physics field.   This thesis aims to investigate mechanisms for the transfer of mass and energy into Mercury’s magnetosphere, and magnetospheric regions affected by, and processes directly driven by, these. The work includes the Kelvin-Helmholtz instability (KHI) at the magnetopause, which is one of the main drivers for mass and energy transfer on Earth, the low-latitude boundary layer (LLBL), which is in direct connection to the magnetopause and proposed to be affected by the KHI, magnetospheric ultra-low frequency (ULF) waves driven by the KHI, and isolated magnetic field structures in the magnetosheath as possible analogues to the Earth magnetosheath plasmoids and jets.   Kelvin-Helmholtz waves (KHW) and the LLBL are identified and characterized. The KHWs are observed almost exclusively on the duskside magnetopause, something that has not been observed on Earth. In contrast, the LLBL shows an opposite asymmetry. Results suggest that the KHI and LLBL are connected, possibly by the LLBL creating the asymmetry observed for the KHWs.   Isolated changes of the total magnetic field strength in the magnetosheath are identified. The similar properties of the solar wind and magnetosheath negative magnetic field structures suggest that they are analogues to diamagnetic plasmoids found on Earth. No clear analogues to paramagnetic plasmoids are found.     Distinct magnetospheric ULF wave signatures are detected frequently in close connection to KHWs. Results from the polarization analysis on the dayside ULF waves indicate that the majority of these are most probably driven by the KHI. In general, likely KHI driven ULF waves are observed frequently in the Hermean magnetosphere.  Although similar in many aspects, Mercury and Earth show fundamental differences in processes and structures, making Mercury a highly interesting planet to study to increase our knowledge of Earth-like planets. / <p>QC 20170519</p>

No description available.

Aurora occurs in various shapes, one of which is the hitherto unreported phenomenon of auroral fragments. For three periods of occurrence of these fragments their properties were studied in detail during this master’s thesis, using mainly ground-based instrumentation located near Longyearbyen on Svalbard, Norway. A base dataset was constructed from 103 all-sky camera images, manually marking 305 fragments for further analysis. This thesis reports and describes the fragment observations during the observed events, including the auroral and geomagnetic context. Fragments generally seem to fall into two categories, the first being singular, apparently randomly distributed fragments, and the second being periodic fragments that occur in groups with a regular spacing close to auroral arcs. A typical fragment has a small horizontal size below 20 km, a short lifetime of less than a minute and shows no field-aligned extent in the emission. The fragments appear mainly west of zenith (73%) during the three observation nights, whereas their north-south distribution is symmetric around the zenith. Almost all of them exhibit westward drift, the estimated speed for one of the fragments passing the field of view of ASK is ∼1 km/s. A spectral signature can be seen in the green auroral wavelength of O at 557.7 nm and red emission line of N2 at 673.0 nm, but no emission enhancement was observed in the blue wavelengths. One fragment passing the EISCAT Svalbard radar’s field of view shows a local ion temperature increase in a small altitude range of ∼15 km, whereas there is no visible increase in electron density. This could be explained by fragment generation due to locally strong horizontal electric fields. A potential mechanism for this might be electric fields of atmospheric waves superposing with the converging electric fields of auroral arcs created by particle precipitation and the corresponding field-aligned currents. The resulting field would be perpendicular to the magnetic field and the auroral arcs, leading to wave-like density variations of excited plasma close to the arcs. Further study is required to verify this hypothesis and improve the understanding of fragment properties determined from the limited dataset used for this thesis.

<p>This thesis deals with energetic oxygen ions (i.e. single-charged atomic oxygen ions, O+) at altitudes higher than 5 Earth radii (RE) and at latitudes above 75 (toward 90) degrees invariant latitude (deg ILAT) in the dayside polar magnetosphere observed by Cluster. The instrument used in this study is CIS (Cluster Ion Spectrometry experiment) / CODIF (a time-of-flight ion COmposition and DIstribution Function analyser), which covers an energy range from »10 eV up to 38 keV. Cluster detected O+ with energies more than 1 keV (hereafter termed “keV O+”), indicating that energization and/or acceleration process(es) take place in the dayside high-altitude (inside magnetopause) and high-latitude region. These O+ are outflowing (precisely, upward-going along the geomagnetic field lines), and these outflowing keV O+ show a heated (or energized) signature in the velocity distribution as well.</p><p>First, outflowing O+ are observed at the poleward cusp and/or the mantle formed a partial shell-like configuration seen in the velocity distribution. Second, the latitudinal distribution of outflowing O+ (most of them have energies less than 1 keV statistically) observed below 7 RE is consistent with velocity filter effect by the polar convection, while the latitudinal distribution of outflowing keV O+ observed above 7 RE cannot be explained by velocity filter effect only, i.e. this indicates that additional energization and/or acceleration takes place at higher altitudes in the dayside polar region. Thirdly, a tendency to observe outflowing keV O+ for during different geomagnetic conditions is studied. The keV O+ above 9 RE is more often for K p¸5 rather than for K p•3. However the energy of O+ is not dependent on ASY /SYM indices.</p><p>Finally, the dependence on the solar wind conditions is also studied. The energization and/or acceleration of outflowing O+ is controlled by both solar wind moments (except solar wind electric field) and strong southward interplanetary magnetic field (IMF) at the time scale of tens of minutes at only higher altitudes. Further examination shows that solar wind dependence is different at three regions: one is the poleward cusp, another is the low-altitude polar cap, and finally the high-altitude polar cap, combining all the results. There is (a) new energization and/or acceleration process(es) at the high-altitude polar cap. On the other hand, flux enhancement of O+ observed above 5 RE is also controlled by solar wind moments (e.g. solar wind electric field) and strong southward IMF, however the ionospheric changes play a more important role on the flux enhancement of O+.</p>

<p>Broadband extremely low-frequency wave emissions below the ion plasma frequency have been observed by a number of spacecraft and rockets on auroral field lines. The importance of these broadband emissions for transverse ion heating and electron acceleration in the auroral regions is now reasonably well established. However, the exact mechanism(s) for mediating this energy transfer and the wave mode(s) involved are not well known. In this thesis we focus on the identification of broadband waves by different methods. </p><p>Two wave analysis methods, involving different approximations and assumptions, give consistent results concerning the wave mode identification. We find that much of the broadband emissions can be identified as a mixture of ion acoustic, electrostatic ion cyclotron and, ion Bernstein waves, which all can be described as different parts of the same dispersion surface in the linear theory of waves in homogeneous plasma. </p><p>A new result is that ion acoustic waves occur on auroral magnetic field lines. These are found in relatively small regions interpreted as acceleration regions without cold (tens of eV) electrons.</p><p>From interferometry we also determine the phase velocity and k vector for parallel and oblique ion acoustic waves. The retrieved characteristic phase velocity is of the order of the ion acoustic speed and larger than the thermal velocity of the protons. The typical wavelength is around the proton gyro radius and always larger than the Debye length which is consistent with ion acoustic waves. </p><p>We have observed quasi-static parallel electric fields associated with the ion acoustic waves in regions with large-scale currents. Waves, in particular ion acoustic waves, can create an anomalous resistivity due to wave-particle interaction when electrons are retarded or trapped by the electric wave-field. To maintain the large-scale current, a parallel electric field is set up, which then can accelerate a second electron population to high velocities.</p>