John Riley ’25

Major: Physics; Minor: Math 
Project: “Determining Three-Dimensional Current Distributions in the Earth’s Inner Magnetosphere Using the TS05 Magnetic Field Model and Satellite Measurements” 
Advisors: Keith Wood, assistant professor of physics

John Riley ’25 wanted to be introduced to the world of physics research. He reached out to Dr. Keith Wood, assistant professor of physics at Moravian University, who guided Riley toward the idea of collecting data on electrical current distributions in the earth’s magnetosphere. Dr. Wood studied magnetospheric physics for his PhD dissertation, which led him and Riley on the path to research a new method of studying electrical currents.

Riley’s new method would use a model of the inner magnetosphere, called TS05, in tandem with publicly available satellite data from OmniWeb to determine electrical currents in the earth’s inner magnetosphere. While this method would gather data with less detail than other methods used, its data would span the entire inner magnetosphere and be able to do so with less computational runtime.

Riley developed a program to collect data using this method and developed additional programs to plot the data to compare to other methods. Although the features are less detailed in Riley’s method, the plots match qualitatively with other methods and span regions of space on which other methods can’t gather data.

Riley started by collecting data on the currents in the northern ionosphere and plotting them. Then he developed a program to determine and plot the currents for the inner magnetosphere.

The currents are three-dimensional, but because the program collects only over a two-dimensional area, Riley had to collect data for multiple “slices” at each storm time he investigated. He collected data on a geomagnetic storm on June 1, 2013, from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. by taking data on 11 slices for every hour of the storm. While he could stack the slices together for a three-dimensional plot, it can be difficult to read, so he investigated one slice at a time.

This project allowed Riley to solidify his path in the physics field with his goal of attending graduate school, and Dr. Wood mentored him on the process.

“He helped me understand not just what the program is like, but what I have to do to get there, along with certain steps I should take,” Riley says. “The most important part of this experience for me was making sure I enjoyed physics research as a long-term project and that it was something I wanted to continue doing. . . . I learned a lot this summer and enjoyed the process, so I feel better about the path I am pursuing.” 

Riley and Dr. Wood plan to continue this project with independent research focusing on improving the numerical approximation to work with more data available to them. The two have presented this research at the Landmark Conference hosted by Susquehanna University in summer 2023 and discussed the possibility of presenting their research at the American Geophysical Union conference in San Francisco.