Space physics is the study of everything above the Earth’s atmosphere, where the ionosphere and magnetosphere reside, and from the sun, to the solar system and beyond. Plasmas, gases of charged particles, make up over 99% of the solar system such as in the sun’s core and corona, the solar wind, interplanetary space, and the planetary magnetospheres, and so are a natural focus of the discipline. The ionosphere is a gas of charged particles created by the ionization of particles in the atmosphere from UV radiation from the sun. The magnetosphere is a region of space around the Earth containing the Earth’s magnetic field. It is created by currents flowing in the Earth’s outer liquid core, and extends to where it meets the interplanetary magnetic field created by the solar wind (the magnetopause). The solar wind is a flux of charged particles ejected from the solar corona. The magnetosphere contains the Van Allen radiation belts, typically two belts containing high-energy charged particles trapped from the solar wind and the ionosphere. The discovery of these radiation belts in the 1950’s by James Van Allen, a professor who spent his career at the University of Iowa, through Explorer I launched space physics as a discipline. The solar wind interacts with the Earth’s magnetic field, and disturbances can lead to geomagnetic storms that can affect communication and GPS satellites, spacecraft, the power grid, and other technology.

Four advanced courses in the fundamentals of plasma physics and its application in space and astrophysical environments are offered regularly, as well as specialty courses offered periodically on numerical simulations of plasmas, spacecraft instrumentation for plasma measurements, and data analysis methods in plasma physics and space physics. A plasma physics seminar and a space physics and astrophysics seminar are each held weekly during the academic year.

Space physics research at the University of Iowa is world-renowned, and alumni of the program include scientists such as Donald Gurnett (who also spent his career as a professor at UI), whose discoveries include solving how auroras are created and detecting the heliopause (the boundary between our solar system and outer space) with Voyager 1, and James Hansen, a pioneering climatologist and former director of NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies. In all, researchers at UI have contributed to instrumentation on over one hundred rocket and spacecraft missions.

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Current researchers study such topics as the origin of Jupiter's magnetosphere and magnetic field, the solar wind interacting with Mars and moons, near-sun electron properties, charged particle dynamics in the Earth’s magnetosphere, physics of the auroras, physics of magnetic reconnection at the magnetopause, magnetosphere-ionosphere coupling, Alfven waves, and exploring interstellar space. UI researchers continue to build instrumentation that contributes to spacecraft missions, including current and recent missions such as TRACERS, Van Allen Probes, Juno, MMS, SWARM/CASSIOPE, THEMIS-ARTEMIS, Mars Express, Cluster II and TRICE-2.