Educating Students in Experimental Space Physics and Heliophysics
Abstract
Utah State University has developed a sequence of courses and supporting materials for educating student in experimental space physics and heliophysics. These courses are located in the College of Engineering and within the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department. They are focused on space systems engineering, experimental mission design, the space environment, and environmental sensors. These courses stretch from senior level undergraduates to graduate students. The most significant advances in space physics and Heliophysics, over the next decades are most likely to derive from new observational techniques which this sequence of courses is designed to foster. The connection between advances in scientific understanding and technology has historically been demonstrated across many disciplines and time. There are clear ties between advances in our understanding of Heliophysics processes and the deployment of new sensing techniques, from new vantage points, which fuel new discoveries. The study of the Heliophysics system requires multipoint observations, now being enabled by small satellites and CubeSats, to develop understanding of the coupling between disparate regions: solar-wind, magnetosphere, ionosphere, thermosphere, mesosphere on a planetary scale. Multipoint measurements are also needed to develop understanding of the various scalars or vector field signatures (i.e gradients, divergence) that arise from coupling processes that occur across temporal and spatial scales within localized regions. This paper reviews the courses and materials developed at Utah State University for preparing students for experimental space physics and heliophysics.
- Publication:
-
AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- December 2019
- Bibcode:
- 2019AGUFMED41A..05S
- Keywords:
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- 0810 Post-secondary education;
- EDUCATION;
- 0820 Curriculum and laboratory design;
- EDUCATION;
- 7899 General or miscellaneous;
- SPACE PLASMA PHYSICS;
- 7999 General or miscellaneous;
- SPACE WEATHER