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 26 March 2010: Start of the PhD student course Advanced Astrobiology at 13:00. 10 March 2010: Pressure fronts in the solar wind help erode the atmosphere of Mars, as shown in a study published in Geophysical Research Letters by an international team headed by Niklas Edberg. See also our press release. 18-19 Feb 2010: We organized a meeting of the Plasma Physics section of the Swedish Physical Society here in Uppsala. 3 Feb 2010: NASA continues the Cassini project until 2017! We look forward to exploring the environment and moons of Saturn with our instrument onboard for another 7 years. 13 Nov 2009: En route to its target comet, ESA's spacecraft Rosetta passed Earth for the third and last time at 07:45 UT. Our instrument onboard monitored the Earth's space environment during all the flyby, from Nov 9 to Nov 16. See ESA's press release and YouTube clip, or follow the flyby blog. 2 Oct 2009: ESA has extended the Cluster project until 2012. We look forward to covering the expected increase in solar activity with our instruments onboard, giving us the opportunity to follow a complete solar cycle.

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 a few samples of our research:

• March 2010: Pressure fronts in the solar wind help erode the atmosphere of Mars, we show in a recent study in Geophysical Research Letters. See also our press release.
• 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 -- an investigation of plasma density and temperature in the ionosphere, to fly on ESA's three Swarm satellites.
  
• BepiColombo -- an ESA mission to Mercury, where we are responsible for design of instrument electronics and probe surfaces for the MEFISTO sensors of the PWI instrument. Launch 2012, arrival 2016. More on Bepi and MEFISTO at KTH.
  
• 4 x MMS -- Another four-spacecraft flotilla: NASA's Magnetospheric MultiScale mission, for launch in 2013, for which we will build electric field instruments together with the Royal Institute of Technology (KTH). More info on the SMART instrument suite for MMS at SwRI.

• 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 seventies and eighties.

Who we are

• Mats André, PhD, professor -- head of research programme, PI Cluster EFW
• Stephan Buchert, PhD -- magnetospheric and ionospheric science
• Chris Cully, PhD -- Cluster archive scientist, instrument design and magnetospheric research
  
• Niklas Edberg, PhD -- postdoc (Cassini)
  
• Anders Eriksson, PhD -- PI Rosetta LAP, Cluster EFW operations and data, MMS
• Yuri Khotyaintsev, PhD -- research assistant (Cluster)
  
• Ronan Modolo, PhD -- periodic guest scientist from CETP-IPSL Velizy, France
  
• Michiko Morooka, PhD -- guest scientist (Cassini)
• Hermann Opgenoorth, PhD, professor -- also at ESA
• Alessandro Retinò, PhD -- guest scientist from Space Research Institute of the Austrian Science Academy, Graz
  
• Muhammad Shafiq, PhD -- post doc (Cassini)
  
• 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)
  

• 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 diploma student
  

• Marco Chiaretta [Swarm] -- Simulations of Langmuir probe measurements
• Christian Hånberg [Rosetta] -- Parametric modelling of Rosetta spacecraft potential measurements
  
• Madeleine Holmberg [Cassini] -- Solar EUV intensity from the Cassini Langmuir probe

• Rico Behlke -- defended his PhD thesis in December 2005, now PostDoc with Tromsø University, stationed at Svalbard
  
• Rolf Boström, professor (retired) -- Cassini, former Rosetta LAP PI
• Tobia Carozzi -- PhD, former scientist and ISDAT maintainer, now at the University of Glasgow
• 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 retired from Uppsala University
• Anita Kullen -- post doc, auroral and magnetospheric physics, 2005-2008.
  
• Kristoffer Hultgren -- student project (2009), now PhD student at MISU
• Tiera Laitinen, PhD -- post doc (Cluster) 2008-2009, now at FMI
• Tomas Lindstedt -- licentiate thesis in December 2009, now at ABB in Ludvika.
• 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 Space Science Institute of the Austrian Academy of Sciences, Graz
• Lisa Rosenqvist -- did her PhD (2008) with us, now at FOI
• Fouad Sahraoui, PhD -- visiting scientist from CETP Vélizy, France, spring 2005
• Alexander Sjögren -- diploma student (2009), now PhD student at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, Fla., USA
  
• Sofie Spjuth -- diploma student (2005), now graduate student with the planets and comets group at the Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research, Lindau, Germany
• 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 onWednesday, 10-Mar-2010 19:33:04 CET