Department of Physics

18302  Space Physics

Course Webpage: https://eclass.uoa.gr/courses/PHYS367/

Course Content

• Periodic motions of charged particles in electromagnetic fields, adiabatic invariants, drift shell splitting. Macroscopic plasma description.
• Plasma waves and wave-particle interactions.
• Planetary magnetism, solar magnetism and solar-terrestrial coupling. Active phenomena at the Sun and in geospace and their interactions.
• Plasma populations in geospace: Sources, mechanisms of acceleration, transport and loss, plasmasphere, ring current (symmetric and asymmetric), Van Allen radiation belts.
• Electromagnetic waves in geospace: Dynamical properties and their effects on charged particles.
• Geospace as a system of coupled systems.
• Space environment of outer planets (Jupiter, Saturn) and inner planets (Mars, Venus, Mercury).
• Principles and instruments for particle measurements in space. Processing of space measurements, use of databases, use of models and simulations.