Long before astronauts ventured into space, scientists and philosophers used models to develop theories about Earth and what lies beyond it. This experimentation guide shows students how they too can create models to forge a deep understanding of topics like the scale of the solar system, how eclipses occur, and the cyclic patterns that govern life on our planet. Through the creation of models, readers learn how to develop and test hypotheses and how to represent their findings visually in graphs and charts.

Ring Current Investigations offers a comprehensive description of ring current dynamics in the Earth's magnetosphere as part of the coupled magnetosphere-ionosphere system. In order to help researchers develop a deeper understanding of the fundamental physics of geomagnetic storms, it includes a detailed description of energetic charged particles injection, trapping, and loss. It reviews historical and recent advances in observations, measurements, theory and simulations of the inner magnetosphere and its coupling to the ionosphere and other surrounding plasma populations. In addition, it compares the physics of ring currents at other strongly magnetized planets in the solar system, specifically Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune, with the ring current system at Earth. Providing a description of the most important space weather effects driven by inner magnetospheric energetic particles during geomagnetic storms and present capabilities for their nowcast and forecast, Ring Current Investigations is an important reference for researchers in geophysics and space science, especially related to plasma physics, the ionosphere and magnetosphere, solar-terrestrial relations, and spacecraft anomalies. - Includes an appendix with links to downloadable video clips, illustrating features of ring current and geomagnetic storm dynamics - Provides overview of existing state-of-the-art numerical models and links for open-source code downloads - Offers guidance on how to develop numerical models within the context of the present-day understanding

This book is written by a group of researchers based on the recent research progress in the fiber/matrix interface degradation under various environmental exposures via molecular dynamics simulation. It provides systematic framework of the model development, simulation techniques, and simulation results and presents the future research directions for investigating the interfacial degradation. By introducing the molecular details of fiber/matrix interface under environmental effects, it advances the fundamental understanding of the interfacial degradation mechanism. Researchers, scientists and engineers in the field of civil engineering and composite materials can benefit from the book. In conclusion, this book provides a computational paradigm and valuable insights on the fundamental interfacial degradation mechanism, which can contribute to the prediction of long-term behavior of fiber-reinforced polymer composites in harsh environments and pave the way for the material design with stronger interface.