INSTITUTET FÖR RYMDFYSIK	UPPSALA
Swedish Institute of Space Physics	(59o50.272'N, 17o38.786'E)

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Welcome to the research programme

Space Plasma Physics

NEWS -- see also our page in Swedish 4 Jun 2012: Closing date for applications for our open postdoc position in space plasma physics. More information here. 25 May 2012: Karin Ågren defends her PhD thesis at 10:15 in the Polhem hall at the Ångström laboratory. 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. 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. 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.

What we do

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.
  

What we have in space

• 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.

• 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.

• 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.

Who we are

• 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)
  

• 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

• 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)

• Andreas Johlander [Rosetta/AE], Photoemission on Rosetta
• Omid Talaee [Cassini/JW/KÅ], Electron temperature in Titan's ionosphere

• 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

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http://www.space.irfu.se/index.html
last modified on Friday, 04-May-2012 10:39:04 CEST