2024 Workshop: GDC Mission: Multipoint Observations & Tools

The Geospace Dynamics Constellation (GDC) is a mission to study the coupling between the magnetosphere and the ionosphere/thermosphere system. GDC will address crucial scientific questions pertaining to the dynamic processes active in Earth’s upper atmosphere; their local, regional, and global structure; and their role in driving and modifying magnetospheric activity. GDC will be the first mission to address these questions on a global scale due to its use of a constellation of spacecraft (6) that permit simultaneous multi-point observations. In this session we will have a panel describing the mission and Science Traceability Matrix (STM), followed by short presentations geospace multipoint observation analysis techniques, including Observing Systems Simulation Experiments (OSSEs). We are particularly interested to learn about tools for multipoint analysis and tools that still need to be developed. The science area these multipoint analysis techniques will address include:
(1) Understanding how the high-latitude ionosphere-thermosphere system responds to variable solar wind/magnetosphere forcing. This includes plasma motion, particle precipitation, plasma density structures, and electromagnetic drivers.
(2) Understanding how internal processes in the global ionosphere-thermosphere system redistribute mass, momentum, and energy. This includes electromagnetic drivers and ion-neutral coupling in driving plasma density variations at mid- and low latitudes, processes that create and dissipate horizontally propagating ionosphere and thermosphere structures, the connections between winds, temperature, and major neutral species density variations, and how seasonal variations and asymmetries in Earth's magnetic field and magnetospheric input affect the ionosphere-thermosphere system.