In March of 1989 the entire province of Quebec lost all of its electrical power due to an electromagnetic storm occurring thousands of kilometers above the planet. Changes in the Earth's electromagnetic field have also caused satellites to lose their orbits. If astrophysicists could somehow predict these space storms like a meteorologist predicts a snow storm, humans might be better prepared to avoid these mishaps.
At Maryland, the Space Plasma Physics Group investigates the mysteries behind, and the relationship between, plasma emanating from the Sun and space plasma closer to home. Most of the group's work is dedicated to analyzing data through the Global Geospace Science (GGS) project. Whereas many studies involve only a single satellite used to collect data, the NASA-funded GGS involves four satellites feeding data on the solar wind and the Earth's magnetosphere back to the world's astronomy community. Using such data, astrophysicists hope to understand the cause-effect relationship in the interaction between the Sun and the near-Earth plasma, and to develop the capability to predict the state of the geospace environment. A novel forecasting technique has been developed at Maryland using nonlinear dynamical systems theory.
The Space Plasma Physics Group also addresses the relatively new field of high-altitude lightning. These flashes, grouped as "red sprites" and "blue jets," appear as short-lived, diffuse light streams that appear above the thunderclouds. Although high-altitude lightning was observed from the ground more than 100 years ago, only recently have airplanes equipped with cameras been able to collect data while flying above thunderheads during storms. At Maryland, the first model of red sprites was developed to help explain this curious phenomenon.
![[Photo of Lightning]](lightning.gif)
![[Photo of Juan Valdivia]](valdivia.gif)
"I've always been fascinated by astronomy and physics. When I was younger my father had a telescope and we'd look at the sky from my home in Chile.
I'm interested in two areas--nonlinear dynamics, or chaos, and space plasma. We just sent a paper on controlling chaos to be published in Physical Review Letters. In the area of space plasma, I'm interested in high-altitude lightning and how it heats up the ionosphere, creating bright jets and sprites above the thunderheads. The CIA knew about high-altitude lightning for about 20 years before the rest of us did. They thought it was a weapon developed by the Russians to down satellites. The story is good to use as an opening at conferences!"