Yongliang Zhang

Dr. Yongliang Zhang is a space physicist whose research focuses on a variety of disciplines. He has worked on various auroras including detached, cusp, polar arc, polar rain, and ring current auroras. In addition, he has worked on the response of the thermosphere and ionosphere to magnetic storms (e.g., depletion of O/N2 ratio, nitric oxide enhancement, ionospheric disturbance) by using data from IMAGE/FUV, TIMED/GUVI, DMSP/SSUSI, and DMSP particle data. He developed an empirical global auroral model of electron energy flux and mean energy. Dr. Zhang also discovered that the spatial structure in polar rain electrons could be a result of high latitude magnetopause surface waves. Additional areas of expertise include wave-particle interactions in the magnetosphere, analysis of whistler mode waves observed by GEOTAIL, and polar auroras from ground and DMSP particle observations.