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| INSTITUTET FÖR RYMDFYSIK |
UPPSALA |
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| Swedish Institute of Space Physics |
(59o50.272'N, 17o38.786'E) |
IRF-U Space Plasma Physics
På
svenska, tack
Welcome to
the research programme
Space Plasma Physics
General
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Publications and Presentations
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Education
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Other resources
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NEWS --
see also our page in Swedish

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4 Jun 2012: Closing date for
applications for our open postdoc position in space plasma physics.
More information here.
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25 May 2012: Karin Ågren defends her
PhD thesis
at 10:15 in the Polhem hall at the Ångström laboratory.
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3 May 2012: We celebrate ESA's decision to go ahead with the JUICE mission, dedicated to detailed study of Jupiter's largest moons, particularly Ganymede. We are very interested in this project and hope to participate in the investigation of the space environment in the Jovian system.
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24 Jan 2012: Cold plasma
previously hidden in the magnetosphere is revealed by our instruments on
the Cluster satellites in a study we publish in Geophysical Research Letters,
also featured in National Geographic Daily News and an AGU news release.
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20 Dec 2011: In a recent paper by
Michiko Morooka, we show that dusty plasma around Enceladus affects
Saturn's magnetosphere. See the editor's highlight in Journal of
Geophysical Research.
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We investigate what
goes on in space using instruments we build
ourselves and fly on spacecraft, ground based instruments, computer
simulations and plasma theory. Here are some samples of our research:
- Jan 2012: Cold plasma previously hidden in the magnetosphere is revealed by our instruments on
the Cluster satellites in a study we publish in Geophysical Research Letters,
also featured in National Geographic Daily News and an AGU news release.
- Jan 2012: In a recent paper by
Michiko Morooka, we show that dusty plasma around Enceladus affects
Saturn's magnetosphere. See the editor's highlight in Journal of
Geophysical Research.
- Jul 2011: Plasma jets are common in the universe, and now we know the details of what happens
when they hit an obstacle, using our instruments on the Cluster satellites
in the Earth's magnetic tail.
ESA
highlights the study, published in Physical Review Letters.
- Oct 2010: Small pulse-like waves
known as electron holes dwell at the heart of a
magnetically explosion in space, known as reconnection, we show from
our Cluster data in study in
Physical Review
Letters. See also our press release.
- Oct 2010: We contribute to a study in
Science showing th
at pulsating aurora is caused by waves in space known as chorus emissions. See also the
National Geographic news feature.
- March 2010: Pressure fronts in the solar wind help erode the
atmosphere of Mars, we show in Geophysical
Research Letters.
See also our press
release.
- July 2009: How is the solar wind heated? Part of the answer is
turbulence, as shown in a study in Physical Review Letters. See also NASA's and ESA's press releases.
- March 2009: Is space turbulent? Yes! In a study
in Physical
Review Letters, we present detailed Cluster studies of turbulence
in space. See ESA's press
release.
- Dec 2008: We have tracked a previously invisible ion wind from
the Earth far out in space using Cluster. Published in Nature
Geoscience, presented in our press
release and in an ESA Cluster
top story.
- March 2007: We found that magnetic field reconnection occurs in
turbulent plasmas, too. Published in Nature Physics,
presented in an ESA news
feature.
- Nov 2006: We reveal the inner structure of a region of space
close to a magnetic reconnection site. Published in Physical Review
Letters.
- Aug 2005: We discovered Alfvén vortices, a kind of
whirlpools in space, near the boundary of the Earth's magnetosphere.
Published in Nature, presented in
our press
release and in an ESA news feature.
- May 2005: On arrival at Saturn, our Langmuir probe on Cassini
immediately detected cold plasma around Titan and plasma interaction
with ring dust. Published in Science and Geophysical Research
Letters.
For the moment,
we have six instruments operational in
different parts of the solar system.
- 4 x Cluster
-- our
instruments are
exploring Earth's magnetosphere on a flotilla of four ESA spacecraft,
launched
summer 2000
- Cassini --
launched by NASA in 1997,
exploring the environment of Saturn since June 2004, with our Langmuir
probe onboard.
- Rosetta --
launched by ESA in 2004, now carrying our instrument to a comet for
arrival in 2014.
Upcoming:
- 3 x Swarm -- we provide instruments to study the
plasma density and temperature in the Earth's ionosphere, for ESA's three
Swarm satellites. Launch 2012.
- 4 x MMS -- Another four-spacecraft flotilla: NASA's Magnetospheric
MultiScale mission, for launch in 2013, for which we will provide sensor
coating and test equipment for the
electric field instruments built by the University of New Hampshire and the Royal
Institute of Technology (KTH). More
info on the SMART instrument suite for MMS at SwRI.
- BepiColombo -- an ESA-JAXA (Europe-Japan) mission to Mercury, where we are
responsible for the electronics and probe surfaces
for the MEFISTO sensors of the PWI instrument on the magnetospheric orbiter. Launch 2014, orbit insertion
at Mercury 2020. More
on Bepi and MEFISTO at KTH.
- Solar Orbiter -- ESAs mission to investigate the Sun at close distance. We will build parts of the RPW instrument to study the solar wind close to its source.
Our previous
instruments in space, no longer operational:
- Smart-1
-- orbited the moon with our Langmuir probes onboard,
launched September 2003, impact landing on the moon 3 September 2006
- Astrid-2
-- the
Swedish
microsatellite (only 29 kg) carrying our LINDA instrument to the
Earth's
upper ionosphere 1998-1999
- Freja -- detailed
measurements
of the Earth's upper ionosphere 1992-1996, including our wave
investigations
- Viking --
exploring
the Earth's
magnetosphere 1986-1987 by means of our wave instrument (and of course
other instruments as well)
- Numerous sounding rockets during the sixties, seventies, and eighties.
Senior
scientific staff:
- Mats André, PhD, professor -- head of research
programme, PI
Cluster EFW
- David Andrews, PhD -- postdoc, Mars aeronomy
- Stephan Buchert, PhD -- magnetospheric and ionospheric science
- Chris Cully, PhD -- research assistant, magnetospheric research
- Niklas Edberg, PhD -- postdoc (Cassini)
- Anders Eriksson, PhD -- PI Rosetta
LAP, Cluster EFW operations
and data, MMS
- Huishan Fu, PhD -- postdoc (Cluster)
- Yuri Khotyaintsev,
PhD -- research assistant (Cluster)
- Ronan Modolo, PhD -- periodic guest scientist from CETP-IPSL
Velizy, France
- Hermann Opgenoorth, PhD, professor -- magnetospheres and ionospheres at Earth and other planets
- Andris Vaivads,
PhD, docent -- auroral and magnetospheric physics
(Cluster)
- Jan-Erik Wahlund, PhD, docent -- Cassini
RPWS-LP lead CoI,
BepiColombo lead CoI
- Emiliya Yordanova, PhD -- research assistant (Cluster)
- Tatjana Zivkovic, PhD -- postdoc (Cluster/ECLAT)
Engineers and computing support:
- Liza Dackborn, system programmer -- Cassini,
ISDAT
- Reine Gill, research engineer -- flight
s/w, s/c operations, ISDAT
- Sven-Erik Jansson, senior research engineer -- digital electronics
- Farid Shiva, research engineer -- electronics design and
manufacturing
- Lennart Åhlén, senior research engineer -- analog
electronics
Graduate
students (see also our PhD projects page):
- Karin Ågren -- the ionosphere of Titan (Cassini); former project student
- Shiyong Huang -- guest researcher from Wuhan University (Cluster)
- Madeleine Holmberg -- the space environment of Saturn (Cassini); former
project student
- Cecilia Norgren -- reconnection studies (Cluster), former
project student
- Henrik Wiberg -- reconnection studies (Cluster)
Project students
(see also our student projects page):
Some former team
members:
- Rico Behlke
-- defended his PhD
thesis in December 2005, now at Svalbard
- Rolf Boström, professor (retired) -- Cassini,
former Rosetta
LAP
PI
- Tobia Carozzi -- PhD, former scientist and ISDAT maintainer,
now
at the Onsala Space Observatory
- Erik Engwall -- PhD student (Cluster) 2003-2009, defended
his PhD
thesis 20 May 2009, now at Scania.
- Philippe Garnier, PhD -- Cassini post-doc 2007-2008, now at
CESR Toulouse.
- Hans Gunnarsson -- former
technician, now
retired
- Georg Gustafsson, professor (retired) -- former Viking V4L
and
Cluster EFW PI
- Jan-Ove Hall, PhD -- former visiting scientist, now at FOI
- Bengt Holback -- former Viking V4L and Freja F4 PI, now at the
Ångström laboratory, Uppsala University
- Gunnar Holmgren -- former scientist, now
at Sebased
- Anita Kullen -- post doc,
auroral and magnetospheric physics, 2005-2008, now at KTH.
- Kristoffer Hultgren -- student project (2009), now PhD student at
MISU
- Tiera Laitinen, PhD -- post doc (Cluster) 2008-2009, now at
FMI
- Sara Lindgren -- project student (2010), now PhD student in astrophysics at Uppsala University
- Tomas Lindstedt --
licentiate thesis in December 2009,
now at ABB in Ludvika.
- Michiko Morooka, PhD -- postdoc (Cluster), guest scientist (Cassini)
- Annika Olsson, PhD, docent -- now project manager at Uppsala
University Innovation
- Frederic Pitout -- did his PhD (2002)
with us, now at Laboratoire
de Planétologie, Grenoble
- Alessandro
Retinò -- did his PhD (2007)
with us, now at the Laboratoire
de Physique des Plasmas, France
- Lisa Rosenqvist -- did her PhD (2008)
with us, now at FOI
- Fouad Sahraoui,
PhD -- visiting scientist from CETP
Vélizy, France, spring 2005
- Muhammad Shafiq -- post doc 2008-2010 (Cassini)
- Gabriella Stenberg, PhD -- post doc (Cluster) 2005-2009, now
at IRF Kiruna
- David
Sundkvist -- did his PhD
(2005) with us, now at Space
Sciences Laboratory, University of California, Berkeley
- Harley Thomas -- mechanical engineering, retired 2009
- Anders Tjulin -- did his PhD
(2003) with us, now at EISCAT,
Kiruna
På
svenska, tack
http://www.space.irfu.se/index.html
last modified on Friday, 04-May-2012 10:39:04 CEST
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