Office: 379, Tate Laboratory of Physics

Professor of Physics

University of Minnesota

Phone: 612-625-1323

Fax: 612-626-2029

E-mail: bob@aurora.space.umn.edu

Physics Web Page: http://www.spa.umn.edu/directory/lysak.html

Particle acceleration and the dynamics of current flow in the earth’s auroral zone. Related areas include generation of electric and magnetic fields in the magnetosphere, plasma instabilities and turbulence, wave heating of ions, magnetic reconnection, and magnetohydrodynamic waves and turbulence. Both analytic and numeric techniques are used, with present emphasis on development of large scale computer models of auroral phenomena.

Particle Acceleration and Wave Phenomena in the Auroral Region

Energetics of the Ionospheric Feedback Interaction

Kinetic Theory of Alfven Wave Acceleration of Auroral Electrons

Non-local Kinetic Theory of Alfven Waves on Auroral Field Lines

Magnetosphere-Ionosphere Coupling by Alfven Waves at Mid-Latitudes

Propagation of Alfven Waves at the Plasma Sheet Boundary Layer

Nonlocal Interactions between electrons and Alfven Waves on Auroral Field Lines

Magnetosphere-Ionosphere Coupling by Alfven Waves: Beyond Current Continuity

Resonant Cavities and Waveguides in the Ionosphere and Atmosphere

On the Dispersion Relation for the kinetic Alfven Wave in an Inhomogeneous Plasma

Propagation of Kinetic Alfven waves in the Ionospheric Alfven Resonator in the Presence of Density Cavities

Propagation of Alfven Waves in the Magnetotail During Substorms

References

2009 Space Physics Tutorial

Tutorial: 2009 Space Physics Seminar

Movie of Phase Mixing in the Ionospheric Alfven Resonator

IMAGE movie of Auroral Dynamics

GEM 2003 (tutorial and movies)

GEM Magnetosphere-Ionosphere Coupling Tutorial

Movie of an Alfven Wave Front

Movie of an Alfven Wave Pulse

Movie of Mode Conversion at Plasma Sheet Boundary Layer

IUGG 2003 Reporter Review

Power Point slides for Reporter Review

Reference List for Reporter Review

This work is supported in part by NSF Grants ATM-0602464 and ATM-0613473 and NASA Grant NNX08AM31G. Computing resources are provided by the Minnesota Supercomputer Institute.