Speaker
Description
Geospace is a complex, interconnected system, where diverse physical domains and particle populations interact across a vast range of spatial and temporal scales. To understand geospace in all of its complexity and enable robust space weather prediction, physics-based models must describe the system holistically, i.e., treat all essential processes and domains, while maintaining sufficiently high resolution to capture all the relevant scales. The NASA DRIVE Center for Geospace Storms (CGS) addresses this challenge through the development of the Multiscale Atmosphere-Geospace Environment (MAGE) model, which effectively bridges the gap between global dynamics and mesoscale regional processes. We present a summary of the results from the Center over the past few years that highlight how mesoscale processes drive global reconfiguration, including the build-up of the ring current via plasma sheet flows in the magnetosphere, the ionospheric response through subauroral polarization streams and plasma density plumes, as well as the interplay between mesoscale auroral forms and global electrodynamics. We conclude by placing these representative cross-scale coupling processes in the context of the global mass and energy redistribution characteristic of stormtime geospace dynamics.