Theoretical Research on Planetary Atmospheres
{'Code': '06020201', 'Directorate': {'LongName': 'Directorate For Geosciences'}, 'Division': {'LongName': 'Div Atmospheric & Geospace Sciences'}}
{'SignBlockName': 'Sunanda Basu'}
The outermost atmosphere of the earth and the other planets                consists of hydrogen, the lightest gas, that is produced by the                 dissociation of methane and water vapor by irradiation by solar                 ultraviolet in the middle atmosphere above the ozone layer.  The                hydrogen diffuses to altitudes above 500km, where the H atoms                   travel on ballistic orbits out to about 10 earth radii, and form                the envelope of hydrogen around the Earth known as the                          "Geocorona."  Some of the H atoms are energized sufficiently to                 escape the earth altogether, mainly by collisions with the                      numerous low energy trapped ions confined by the earth's magnetic               field, that constitute the "Magnetosphere."  This process is also               an important cooling process for the low energy ions.  The                      interaction between the neutral hydrogen and another population                 of high energy ions is the main loss mechanism for the energy                   injected into the Magnetosphere in the form of a "Ring Current"                 of these ions during magnetic storms.  Thus it is important to                  know the distribution of hydrogen around the earth, and both                    observational and theoretical efforts are under way to determine                this.  This award is for a modelling effort that seeks especially               to take into account the effects of solar radiation pressure on                 perturbing the trajectories of the H atoms, and causing some to                 be injected into orbit, and some to escape the earth in an                      alternative process to collisions with trapped ions.
{'FirstName': 'Joseph', 'LastName': 'Chamberlain', 'EmailAddress': 'chamber@rice.edu                        FAX: 713/285-5143     Tel. ext. 3641', 'StartDate': '06/01/1988', 'EndDate': None, 'RoleCode': 'Principal Investigator'}
{'Name': 'William Marsh Rice University', 'CityName': 'Houston', 'ZipCode': '770051827', 'PhoneNumber': '7133484820', 'StreetAddress': '6100 MAIN ST', 'CountryName': 'United States', 'StateName': 'Texas', 'StateCode': 'TX'}
{'Code': '1521', 'Text': 'AERONOMY'}
{'url': 'https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/download?DownloadFileName=1987&All=true', 'xml': '8719258.xml'}