Space Plasma Theory

Did you know?

1. That the wiggling of the Earth's magnetic field lines by the solar wind can accelerate electrons to high enough velocities to produce the Northern Lights?
2. That a tremendous electrical current flows 100 Kilometers above the Earth's surface?
3. That the Sun shouldn't have a magnetic field anymore, but somehow still manages to have one?
4. That if you drop dust particles into an ionized gas, they sometimes arrange themselves into a crystalline structure?
5. That you and your heart may only be a software error away from death?
6. That computer simulation techniques and analytical approaches may be used to investigate all of the above?

The core of my research tries to answer some of these fundamental questions using analytical and numerical approaches. I use low dimensional dynamical systems to study the Aurora Borealis, and the development of plumes and nonlinear plasma instabilities in the auroral and equatorial ionospheres. I study exotic nonlinear structures such as solitons, spiral and scroll waves which form and evolve in space plasmas. Plasma Turbulence as it pertains to space and laboratory plasmas has always been the main focus of my research program. I continue to investigate the possible paths that a system chooses to reach a turbulent state, from periodicity to double periodicity to turbulence, a chaotic path to turbulence.

My studies of the solar-terrestrial relation have led me to the development of Space-Weather Forecasting tools; tools that enable us to predict geomagnetic activity that can have a tremendous impact on pipelines and power grids. These studies are based on the nonlinear analysis of time series associated with geomagnetic phenomena ranging from the impact of Coronal mass ejections onto the earth magnetosphere to solarwind parameters to storms and substorms to ionospheric conductivity.

Representative Publications

Hamza, A. M., Guest Editor, "Space Weather and the Environment," Physics in Canada (PIC), September/October 1998.

Hamza, A. M, "The Perkins Instability Revisited", Journal of Geophysical Research, 1999.

Hamza, A. M., and H. Imamura, "On the Excitation of large aspect angle Farley-Buneman echoes via three-wave coupling: A dynamical system model," Journal of Geophysical research, 2000.

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