NEWS & EVENTS

The interaction between the solar wind and the Earth’s magnetosphere is a frontier and hot topic in space physics study. Previous study often relied on in situ satellite data from a single point or multiple points, which can provide local plasma and field information. It can study the solar wind - magnetosphere interaction on small and medium-sized scales, but is not sufficient to study the overall response of large-scale magnetospheric structures to the solar wind. The discovery of the solar wind charge exchange (SWCX) mechanism provides a new opportunity to conduct panoramic imaging of the magnetosphere using soft X-ray wide-range imaging technology, which can be used to study the solar wind - magnetosphere interaction on a global scale. Based on this, the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the European Space Agency proposed the joint satellite program: Solar wind – Magnetosphere - Ionosphere Link Explorer (SMILE). The soft X-ray imager (SXI) carried by SMILE has an innovative wide field of view and will take photos of the Earth's magnetosphere for the first time.

Biography

Dr. Zhang received her bachelor's degree from China University of Geosciences Beijing in 2018, and doctor's degree from the National Space Science Center, the Chinese Academy of Sciences in 2023. Her research focuses on solar wind charge exchange (SWCX) soft X-rays in the Earth’s magnetosphere, including extracting SWCX soft X-rays from raw X-ray signals and studying the relationship between extracted SWCX signals and the solar wind, the observation line of sight and the neutral hydrogen density. Her research is an important component of SMILE’s pre-study project, which can lay the foundation for SMILE’s scientific data analysis and the realization of its scientific goals. She has published multiple first-author papers in APJL, APJ, etc.

Additional information: Prof. Zhonghua YAO, yaozh@hku.hk