Space Plasma Physics

4 units · Graduate courses (200-299)

Lecture, three hours. Requisite: course 200C or Physics 210A. Physics of plasmas in space, including treatments based on magnetohydrodynamics and kinetic theory. Applications to solar or planetary winds, steady-state magnetospheres, magnetospheric convection, substorm processes, magnetic merging, field-aligned currents and magnetosphere/ionosphere coupling, ring current dynamics, and wave particle instabilities. S/U or letter grading.