A University of Iowa researcher has won a NASA fellowship to investigate how a certain type of aurora affects Earth’s atmosphere and its climate. 

Lillian Daneshmand, graduate research assistant in the Department of Physics and Astronomy, will investigate pulsating auroras, which are widespread, blinking forms of aurora. 

Auroras are formed by energetic particles produced by interactions between solar winds and Earth’s magnetic field, thus creating space weather. The auroras are commonly known as the northern and southern lights.

Pulsating auroras can deposit significant amounts of energy into the ionosphere, part of Earth’s upper atmosphere, as well as in other atmospheric regions. Those energy bursts can cause the production of ozone, a potent greenhouse gas. They also can provide insight into the Van Allen radiation belts, allowing researchers to study high-energy particles that can affect satellites, and astronauts and spacecraft traveling in near-Earth space. 

Daneshmand will use automated cameras that capture full images of the sky across Canada and Alaska to observe pulsating auroras. Incoherent scatter radars — separate ground-based instruments used to measure ionospheric plasma density, temperature, velocity, and composition — will collect data on the energy of the incoming particles. 

The information Daneshmand collects from Earth’s atmosphere will be complemented by measurements of plasma waves and the amounts of energetic particles in Earth’s magnetosphere through satellites that have already been deployed, including the Van Allen Probes and the TRACERS spacecraft.

By mapping magnetic field lines from satellites to cameras and radars on the ground, Daneshmand will connect processes in Earth’s radiation belts and magnetosphere to auroras and atmospheric changes. This will help determine how much energy pulsating auroras deposit during storms and substorms. The information could be used to improve space weather forecasts and to better protect satellites, radio communications, and GPS systems. 

“Being awarded a FINESST Fellowship has been incredibly exciting for me,” Daneshmand said. “It gives me the opportunity to focus on the science that I find most exciting and will provide endless opportunities for me to learn and grow as a researcher.”

The project is supervised by Allison Jaynes, associate professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy. Jaynes says this is the third Future Investigators in NASA Earth and Space Science and Technology award won by her research group. 

“I am grateful for all of [Jaynes’] mentorship and guidance, and I feel very lucky that we have a scientist like her right here at Iowa,” Daneshmand said. “I feel like I’ve learned so much from her.” 

The three-year award from NASA is for $150,000.