At the 2024 Undergraduate Research and Creative Achievement Day (URCAD), two students, who are supported by Brandon Burkholder's NASA MMS (Magnetospheric Multiscale) Early Career Grant, presented the poster, "Comparing Cusp Dispersion Signatures from DMSP observations and Global MHD Simulations with Test Particles." 

Yohannes Girma and Azzan Porter are both physics majors at UMBC. Yohannes Girma works with global magnetohydrodynamic simulations of Earth's magnetosphere, and Azzan Porter analyzes observations from different spacecraft in the magnetosphere. Says Dr. Burkholder, "Our science will help to better predict extreme space weather events and their impacts on technology and society."

(Photo credit: B. Burkholder)