Profile
Educational Background
PhD, Electrical Engineering, Virginia Tech, 2019
N/A, Physics, University of New Hampshire, 2015
MS, Space Physics, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, 2014
BS, Space Physics, University of Science and Technology of China, 2011
Profile/About Me
I joined Clemson University as an Assistant Professor in 2025. I had been working as Project Scientist at NSF National Center for Atmospheric Research from 2022 to 2025, and as a postdoctoral researcher there from 2019 to 2022. I obtained my PhD degree from Virginia Tech. My PhD dissertation title was "Solar Wind-Magnetosphere-Ionosphere Coupling: Multiscale Study with Computational Models".
Research Interests
My primary research interest is in the interactions between the Earth's atmosphere and its space environment. I have been trying to understand the physical connections between atmosphere and geospace in three pathways: particle, electromagnetic, and thermodynamic.
Particle pathway includes auroral precipitation and ion outflow. My experience primarily focuses on particle precipitation, including the fundamental mechanisms driving charged particle precipitation into the atmosphere, its contribution to the generation of ionospheric conductance, and consequent impacts on the electrodynamic coupling between the magnetosphere, ionosphere, and thermosphere (MIT).
Electromagnetic (EM) pathway refers to the EM field, wave, and Poynting flux, connecting the magnetosphere and upper atmosphere. These processes include plasma convection electric field, Alfvén waves propagating along geomagnetic field lines, and energy flow carried by the EM waves.
Thermodynamic pathway refers to the heat flux between the hot magnetospheric plasma (1s-1000s eV, where 1 eV ~ 11600 K) and relatively cooler upper atmospheric plasma (100s-1000s K).
I have been mainly using the Multiscale Atmosphere-Geospace Environment (MAGE) model to explore the particle, EM, and heat fluxes in the coupled atmosphere-geospace environment. The MAGE model has been under active development at the NASA DRIVE Science Center for Geospace Storms (CGS).
Courses Taught
2025 Fall - PHYS 3150 - 001 Introduction to Computational Physics
Selected Publications
Lin, D., Sorathia, K., Wang, W., Merkin, V., Bao, S., Pham, K., et al. (2021). The role of diffuse electron precipitation in the formation of subauroral polarization streams. Journal of Geophysical Research: Space Physics, 126, e2021JA029792. https://doi.org/10.1029/2021JA029792
Lin, D., Wang, W., Merkin, V. G., Huang, C., Oppenheim, M., Sorathia, K., et al. (2022). Origin of dawnside subauroral polarization streams during major geomagnetic storms. AGU Advances, 3, e2022AV000708. https://doi.org/10.1029/2022AV000708
Lin, D., Wang, W., Fok, M.-C., Pham, K., Yue, J., & Wu, H. (2024). Subauroral red arcs generated by inner magnetospheric heat flux and by subauroral polarization streams. Geophysical Research Letters, 51, e2024GL109617. https://doi.org/10.1029/2024GL109617
Lin, D., Wang, W., Garcia-Sage, K., Yue, J., Merkin, V., McInerney, J. M., et al. (2022). Thermospheric neutral density variation during the “SpaceX” storm: Implications from physics-based whole geospace modeling. Space Weather, 20, e2022SW003254. https://doi.org/10.1029/2022SW003254
