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Photograph credit: Ingrida Bertasiute
Background : I work with the Planetary Plasmas Group / Atmospheric Physics Laboratory within UCL's Department of Physics and Astronomy. We are also part of the UCL Centre for Planetary Sciences. My current research interests broadly cover the magnetospheres and ionospheres of giant planets (Jupiter and Saturn) and how these systems are coupled together. Previously, I have been a mission planner for the team who manage the magnetometer instrument onboard the Cassini spacecraft, currently orbiting the planet Saturn - I am a science co-investigator at present for the Cassini magnetometer team, as well as the JMAG magnetometer team for the JUICE (JUpiter ICy moons Explorer) mission, currently being developed and due for launch in 2022. The Principal Investigator for Cassini-MAG and JMAG is Professor Michele Dougherty of Imperial College. JUICE aims to revisit the Jovian magnetosphere, and in particular study the interaction between the magnetic fields of Jupiter and one of its moons, Ganymede.
Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech |
Image Credit: Spacecraft: ESA/ATG medialab; Jupiter: NASA/ESA/J. Nichols (University of Leicester); Ganymede: NASA/JPL; Io: NASA/JPL/University of Arizona; Callisto and Europa: NASA/JPL/DLR |
Brief Curriculum Vitae :
Affiliations :
Member of the UCL Department of Physics and Astronomy's Astrophysics Group, and the Planetary Plasma Physics Subgroup (P3SG).
Collaborator with scientists from UCL's Mullard Space Science Laboratory (MSSL), and UCL Point of Contact for the Europlanet 2024 RI (research infrastructure) project.
Member of UCL's Out@UCL LGBTQ+ Social Network.
Certified Mentor for the In2ScienceUK initiative, promoting social mobility and diversity in STEM .
Collaborator with the Shift25 Initiative .
Magnetic geometry and pressure distributions from theoretical model of Saturn's magnetodisc region, developed in collaboration with colleagues Patrick Guio and Chris Arridge from UCL and U. Lancaster. |
Flow velocities in the UCL 2D axisymmetric model of Jupiter's upper atmosphere, developed by Chris Smith. We have recently adapted this model to allow for different physical states of the planet's magnetosphere. Here we see azimuthal velocity on a colour scale, and meridional flow directions as arrows. The problem of magnetosphere-ionosphere coupling is one of the important challenges in planetary science. |
Lecture Materials and Videos :
Graduate Lectures in Planetary Magnetospheres and Astrophysical Discs :
The links below can be followed to lecture notes associated with the topics Planetary Magnetospheres (given at the 2015 Colorado Heliophysics summer school) and Discs in Astrophysical Systems (given at the IAFE at Uni of Buenos Aires in 2015, condensed version given at UCL in 2016):
Graduate Lectures in Planetary Atmospheres :
Conference Presentations and Invited Talks :
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