Tag: Engebretson

Dr. Mark Engebretson Receives 30th Grant from National Science Foundation to Study Space Weather

Dr. Mark EngebretsonDr. Mark Engebretson, Professor Emeritus of Physics, has received a five-year grant totaling $805,744 from the National Science Foundation to continue operation of the Magnetometer Array for Cusp and Cleft Studies (MACCS) as well as analyze and disseminate its data. This grant represents the 30th research study on which Dr. Engebretson has served as the Principal Investigator via National Science Foundation funding.

MACCS is an 8-station ground-based array that records and disseminates important magnetic field measurements for scientific analyses.  It is the only longitudinally-spaced cusp-latitude array in existence and will continue to provide critical data for studies of geospace phenomena including solar wind-magnetosphere and magnetosphere-ionosphere interactions, geomagnetic storms and substorms, and localized instabilities that produce large geomagnetically induced currents which can cause power grid blackouts on Earth.

Engebretson and his team (Dr. Laura Simms, Dr. Slava Pilipenko, and Dr. Erik Steinmetz) will continue to maintain the MACCS array and conduct detailed observational and theoretical studies using both ground-based and satellite data.  The MACCS project has provided research experiences to over 50 students since its installation in 1992.  The team’s most recent undergraduate co-author of a refereed paper, Lidiya Ahmed (’20), will begin graduate study in Physics at Harvard University after spending 2020/2021 doing research at work at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center near Washington, D.C.

The title of the new study is Collaborative Research: Ground-Based Studies of High-Latitude Magnetospheric and Ionospheric Dynamics Using the Magnetometer Array for Cusp and Cleft Studies (MACCS) and the NSF Award number is 2013648. The University of Michigan (PI Dr. Mark Moldwin) is a key partner on the MACCS 9 project, which will span 8/1/2020 – 7/31/2025.

Dr. Engebretson awarded NSF funding for collaborative space physics research

The National Science Foundation recently awarded Dr. Mark Engebretson, Professor Emeritus of Physics, and his team $396,635 over three years to support the project, “Collaborative Research:  Studies of ULF Waves Associated with Solar Wind Coupling to the Magnetosphere and Ionosphere.” (NSF ID: PLR-1341493)

In collaboration with Dr. Marc Lessard at the University of New Hampshire, Dr. Engebretson will continue to operate and analyze data from four ground-based induction magnetometers located in Antarctica (including South Pole Station) and two in the Arctic. The stations in this project are key links in arrays of ground-based ionospheric and magnetospheric observatories in both the Arctic and Antarctic regions. These observatories, together with both low-altitude and high-altitude NASA satellites, provide the data with which Engebretson, Lessard, and members of their team work to characterize and understand the physical processes occurring in Earth’s space environment.

The study of the Earth’s space environment has become increasingly important to our technologically–driven society.   Continue reading “Dr. Engebretson awarded NSF funding for collaborative space physics research”

Engebretson and MACCS team receive $425,919 grant from National Science Foundation

The National Science Foundation has awarded a new three-year $425,919 research grant (NSF AGS-1264146) to Augsburg College’s Physics Department for continued operation of the Magnetometer Array for Cusp and Cleft Studies (MACCS), a longitudinally-extended array of 8 magnetometers located in Arctic Canada, and for space science research based on MACCS data. Continue reading “Engebretson and MACCS team receive $425,919 grant from National Science Foundation”

Physics Professor Receives NSF Funding to Continue Space Research

Dr. Mark Engebretson, Professor of Physics, was granted a three year, $185,940 award from NSF’s Division of Atmospheric and Geospace Sciences for his project, “Collaborative research: Continued study of ultra low frequency (ULF) waves at cusp latitudes on Svalbard to probe earth’s space environment.” Continue reading “Physics Professor Receives NSF Funding to Continue Space Research”