Space and Atmospheric Physics
A. Masters
''Does Uranus' Asymmetric Magnetic Field Produce a Relatively Weak Proton Radiation Belt?''
A Master's et al., Geophysical Research Letters, 2022, 49, 23.
G. J. Koehn, R. T. Desai, E. E. Davies, R. J. Forsyth, J. P. Eastwood, and S. Poedts.
''Successive Interacting Coronal Mass Ejections: How to Create a Perfect Storm''
Graven, H, E Lamb, D Blake and S Khatiwala.
Future Changes in δ13C of Dissolved Inorganic Carbon in the Ocean, Earth’s Future, (2021) 9, 12. doi.org/10.1029/2021EF002173
Chadney, J., T.T. Koskinen, X. Hu, and M. Galand, et al.
Energy deposition in Saturn’s equatorial upper atmosphere, Icarus, (2022) 372, 114724. doi.org/10.1016/j.icarus.2021.114724
Marek Cottingham
Marek Cottingham worked on the implementation of the different audio methods to satellite data, contributing to the software developed.
Archer MO, Cottingham M, Hartinger MD, Shi X, Coyle S, Hill E“D, Fox MFJ and Masongsong EV (2022) Listening to the Magnetosphere: How Best to Make ULF Waves Audible. Front. Astron. Space Sci. 9:877172. doi: 10.3389/fspas.2022.877172
Shafiat Dewan and Cara Waters
Cara Waters and Shafiat Dewan undertook the research into current space resources and their diversity, then curating a more diverse collection which is being used in the development of a new resource.
Archer, M. O., Waters, C. L., Dewan, S., Foster, S., and Portas, A.: GC Insights: Space sector careers resources in the UK need a greater diversity of roles, Geosci. Commun., 5, 119–123, https://doi.org/10.5194/gc-5-119-2022, 2022.
Martin Archer
Martin spent 8 weeks on a summer UROP placement with Dr Tim Horbury, working with data from the Cluster space mission. During this time, Martin implemented a new technique which made it possible to measure the full size and shape of waves in the solar wind upstream of the Earth for the first time. Martin wrote up the work and his paper was published in a refereed journal. Article citation: Archer, M., T. S. Horbury, E. A. Lucek, C. Mazelle, A. Balogh, and I. Dandouras (2005), Size and shape of ULF waves in the terrestrial foreshock, J. Geophys. Res., 110, A05208, doi:10.1029/2004JA010791.
Martin is now a DJ with radio station Kiss.
Simon Kernthaler
Based on Simon's MSci project, the paper, "Some doubts concerning a link between cosmic ray fluxes and global cloudiness", published in Geophysical Research Letters [1999], showed that previous claims by other authors that increases in cosmic ray activity were associated with enhanced cloud cover were likely to be unfounded.
Rebecca Day
"The Response of Tropospheric Circulation to Perturbations in Lower-Stratospheric" published in the Journal of Climate, is concerned with how solar variability influences climate. Rebecca carried out most of the data analysis which shows that the jet streams are positioned slightly further towards the poles when the Sun is more active.
Benjamin Charnay
Benjamin did a summer UROP project with Dr. Marina Galand, modeling the deposition of solar photons in the upper atmosphere of Saturn. He presented his work at the "Saturn after Cassini-Huygens" international conference at the end of his placement. His contribution was included in a recent paper published in J. Geophys. Res. presenting the first detailed calculation of energy deposition of solar photoelectrons applied to Saturn using realistic solar and atmospheric conditions.
Galand, M., L. Moore, B. Charnay, I. Mueller-Wodarg, and M. Mendillo (2009), Solar primary and secondary ionization at Saturn, J. Geophys. Res., 114, A06313, doi:10.1029/2008JA013981.
Victor See and Richard Cameron
Victor and Richard continued work on their MSci project with Prof Steve Schwartz on the dynamics of electrons traversing idealised profiles of electric and magnetic fields at a collisionless plasma shock. The impact of the supersonic solar wind emanating from the Sun with the outer reaches of the Earth’s magnetic field produces such a shock. These shocks show narrow electric spikes and steep magnetic gradients that were believed to play a role in the way the shock converts the indicent energy into hear. Victor and Richard showed that in addition to the steepness of the gradients, the position of the spikes plays a critical role in breaking the textbook-style smoothly-varying electron trajectories, and results in a highly inflated dispersal of electron velocities, that is a much higher heating rate. The work was published in Annales Geophysicae. Richard stayed at Imperial to undertake a PhD in the Plasma Group, while Victor is doing a PhD in on stellar winds, magnetic fields and exoplanets at St Andrews.
V. See, R. F. Cameron, S. J. Schwartz. Non-adiabatic electron behaviour due to short scale electric field structures at collisionless shockwaves (2013) Annales Geophysicae, 31, 639-646, doi:10.5194/angeo-31-639-2013.
Ann Winning
Ann spent 6 weeks on a summer project using a computer model of the atmosphere to study how changes in the solar spectrum affect stratospheric ozone and climate. She identified some unexpected impacts and her work was included in a paper published in Nature.
Haigh, J.D., A.R. Winning, R. Toumi and J.W. Harder 2010 An influence of solar spectral variations on radiative forcing of climate. Nature, 467, 696-699. doi:10.1038/nature09426.
Jose Videira
Jose spent 6 weeks on a summer UROP placement with Dr Jonathan Eastwood, analysing magnetic field and plasma data from the Mars Global Surveyor spacecraft. Understanding the escape of the Martian ionosphere into the solar wind is crucial to deciphering its historical atmospheric properties and composition, including water. Continual ionospheric loss is accompanied by bulk removal and transport in structures known as magnetic flux ropes. Jose surveyed MGS data for examples of magnetic flux ropes and studied their properties. The work was subsequently published in Geophysical Research Letters.
Eastwood, J. P., J. J. H. Videira, D. A. Brain, and J. S. Halekas (2012), A chain of magnetic flux ropes in the magnetotail of Mars, Geophys. Res. Lett., 39, L03104, doi:10.1029/2011GL050444.
Peter Sherman
During his second year UROP placement Peter worked with Dr Erik van Sebille analysing the most efficient place to clean up the plastic in the ocean. In twelve weeks, he wrote an entire paper that has been published in Environmental Research letters (http://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1748-9326/11/1/014006/meta), with the journal also commissioning a perspective piece to highlight it (http://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1748-9326/11/4/041001).
It has received wide media coverage, including in the Guardian (https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/jan/19/collecting-plastic-waste-near-coasts-is-most-effective-clean-up-method), Conservation Magazine (https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/jan/19/collecting-plastic-waste-near-coasts-is-most-effective-clean-up-method), Discovery Channel (http://www.discovery.com/dscovrd/nature/researchers-reveal-secret-to-cleaning-up-oceans-floating-plastic/). It was also adapted into a version for teens (http://www.sciencejournalforkids.org/uploads/5/4/2/8/54289603/microplastic_article.pdf)
Zeqi Zhang
https://academic.oup.com/mnras/advance-article/doi/10.1093/mnras/stab750/6169726
Zeqi Zhang, Dr Ravindra Desai
Zeqi worked with Dr Ravindra Desai for a UROP project in 2019. Zeqi continued this work which has been published in a high-impact journal, the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, with Zeqi as the first author. Zeqi also presented these results at a major international conference, the Magnetospheres of the Outer Planets conference in the summer of 2021.
Pilar Iváñez-Ballesteros and Joan Mico-Gomez
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11207-020-01700-5
Pilar Iváñez-Ballestero, Joan Mico-Gomez and Dr Ravindra Desai
BSc (Erasmus) students, Pilar Iváñez-Ballesteros and Joan Mico-Gomez co-authored the paper 'Three-Dimensional Simulations of Solar Wind Preconditioning and the 23 July 2012 Interplanetary Coronal Mass Ejection' with members of the Imperial College Physics Space and Atmospheric Physics Research Group. An Imperial news story was also written about the work: https://www.imperial.ac.uk/news/204493/solar-storms-could-more-extreme-they/
Gautam Agarwal and Zack P McConkey
https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1361-6463/abb977
Gautam Agarwal, Zack P McConkey and Dr John Hassard
Undergraduate students Gautam and Zack worked with Dr John Hassard on the paper: 'Optimisation of vortex tubes and the potential for use in atmospheric separation' which was published in Journal of Physics D: Applied Physics, Volume 54, Number 1