This federal contract, awarded by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) to the University System of New Hampshire (USNH) through its University of New Hampshire (UNH) division, supports research to understand what controls the occurrence of ionospheric outflows, which are an important source of plasma for the magnetosphere.
The $533,118.00 grant has a performance period ending on December 31, 2022 and is intended to address a high priority question for the field of heliophysics, as identified in the 2012 National Research Council Decadal Survey. This research could help explain how ionospheric escape influences magnetic reconnection rates, magnetospheric convection, and inner magnetospheric plasma composition. No set-aside designation was used for this award.