Delano’s Heliophysics ROSES-24 Proposal Awarded Funding

Kevin Delano’s proposal “Generation and transport of nitric oxide during geomagnetic storms”, submitted to the NASA ROSES-24 Heliophysics Supporting Research (HSR) Program, has been selected for funding. Dr. Delano (673/UMBC) is the Principal Investigator of this three-year grant; other team members include Co-Investigators Denny Oliveira (673/UMBC), Shaylah Mutschler (SET), and Liying Qian (NCAR), and Collaborator Eftyhia Zesta (GSFC). 

Dr. Delano provided us with the following summary of the team’s research goals:

“Geomagnetic storms release large amounts of energy into Earth's thermosphere at high latitudes that result in the heating and upward expansion of thermospheric neutral gas. The energy input of such storms, in addition to an increase in precipitating electrons which dissociate molecular nitrogen and oxygen, allows for enhanced production of nitric oxide (NO) in the thermosphere. This species plays a significant role in the cooling of the atmosphere by radiating away excess energy, thus acting as a thermostat for Earth’s upper atmosphere. As a result, understanding NO dynamics during storms is useful for accurate predictions of thermospheric neutral density, which is an essential component of orbital drag calculations. However, the underlying physics of NO generation and transport during storms needs to be further explored.” 

The team will use TIMED and DMSP data and TIE-GCM results to address these three science questions: 

1)How does NO generation vary at different local times in response to geomagnetic storms and magnetospheric compressions?

2)What are the prerequisite amounts of electromagnetic energy input and/or electron precipitation needed to generate NO during geomagnetic storms?

3)How do local generation and transport processes shape the latitude and local time distribution of NO, at both high and low latitudes, during geomagnetic storms?

Congratulations to Dr. Delano and team!