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Space Physics
D'Angelo, Frank,
Gayley, Gurnett, Kletzing, Merlino, Mutel, Scudder, Spangler
Space Physics is the study of everything that is above
Earth's atmosphere but inside the solar system. It includes the Earth's
ionosphere (the ionized gas just above the atmosphere), the magnetosphere
and magnetotail (beyond the ionosphere), the Sun's corona and solar
wind, the planets, inter-planetary space, and cosmic rays. Our research
program includes all these subjects. Student research projects include
analyzing spacecraft data, performing theory, or simulating space
physics conditions using laboratory experiments. Students also participate
in a weekly Astronomy / Space Physics seminar.
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| Space physics research at Iowa attained
international prominence in 1958 when Prof. Van Allen discovered energetic
particles trapped in Earth's geomagnetic field, forming the "Van Allen
Radiation Belts." He subsequently received the Crafoord Prize, which
is given by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences as an equivalent
of a Nobel prize. With the strong international reputation of our
space physics faculty, including two members of the National Academy
of Sciences, and our commitment to graduate research, Iowa has become
a preeminent leader amongst universities in space physics. Our faculty
includes experimenters who have built instruments for spacecraft including
Pioneer, Voyager, Cassini, Galileo, Polar, Cluster, and many other
major space exploration missions. |
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Nicola
D'Angelo |
Experimental
plasma physics
- Basic
plasma physics problems, including laboratory simulations of space plasma
phenomena, dusty plasmas
- Facilities include
two lab rooms with three plasma chambers
- Major equipment
includes two Q-machines with magnetic field up to 0.5 T; each machine
is dedicated to a single graduate student
- Each student is
advised by both D'Angelo and Merlino; students may also be assisted
by an electrical engineer and may participate in collaboration with
Naval Research Laboratory scientists
- Students develop
skills including: vacuum, electronics, data acquisition, machining
- Previous PhDs
are now employed in industry, government labs and universities, including
a professor and two research scientists
- In most years,
grant support is available for multiple RA stipends and student travel
to conferences
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Louis
Frank |
Experimental
space physics
- Spacecraft:
NASA's Polar, investigating the Earth's auroras and upper atmosphere;
Japan's Geotail, investigating plasma dynamics of Earth's distant environment;
JPL's Galileo, observing Jupiter
- Thesis work in
spacecraft projects prepares students for post-graduate work at many
institutions
- Students may directly
operate three cameras on the Polar spacecraft
- Students also
interact with other group members, including three senior research scientists
and one senior engineer
- Students participate
in collaborations with scientists at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center,
JPL, ISAS, Max Planck Institute/Lindau, and universities including UCLA,
Colorado and New Hampshire
- In most years,
grant support is available for multiple RA stipends and student travel
to conferences
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Kenneth
Gayley |
Theoretical
space physics
- Analytic
calculations in ideal magnetohydrodynamics (MHD) of Alfvén-wave
growth in accelerated plasmas; detection volumes for optical tracking
experiments
- Students perform
analytic work followed by more complete computations, developing skills
including programming in Fortran and C++
- Students' experience
in writing dynamic numerical simulations prepares them for positions
either as academic postdocs or as a software specialists in industry
- In most years,
grant support is available for an RA stipend and student travel to conferences
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Donald
Gurnett |
Experimental
space physics
- Experimental
studies of planetary radio emissions and plasma waves
- Analysis
of plasma data from Voyagers 1 and 2 now approaching interstellar space;
Galileo in orbit around Jupiter; Cassini on its way to Saturn; and Cluster,
which consists of four spacecraft in Earth orbit
- Group recently
constructed hardware to measure water in Martian soil and the Martian
ionosphere
- Computing facilities
dedicated to the group include >4 TB of online data storage for networked
computers
- Students analyze
spacecraft data
- Supervised 50
space physics thesis projects over a period of 37 years; former students
now at NASA centers, industry, other universities
- Students also
interact with other group members, including 4 research scientists,
5 engineers, 6 programmers
- In most years,
grant support is available for multiple RA stipends and student travel
to conferences
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Craig
Kletzing |
Experimental
space plasma physics
- Auroral
and magnetospheric physics
- Space
missions include Cluster (a joint NASA-ESA four-spacecraft mission to
study the Earth's magnetosphere); NASA's Polar satellite; the Rocket
Auroral Correlator Experiment (a NASA sounding rocket)
- On-campus facilities
include two vacuum chambers and an electronics lab with all equipment
newer than 1997
- Students participate
in hardware construction of detectors to fly on NASA sounding rockets
- Students also
interact with other group members including two postdocs, a research
scientist, as well as scientists from UCLA, Dartmouth, and NASA's Wallops
Flight Facility
- In most years,
grant support is available for multiple RA stipends and student travel
to conferences
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Robert
Merlino |
Experimental
plasma physics
- Basic
plasma physics problems, including laboratory simulations of space plasma
phenomena, dusty plasmas
- Facilities include
two lab rooms with three plasma chambers
- Major equipment
includes two Q-machines with magnetic field up to 0.5 T; each machine
is dedicated to a single graduate student
- Each student is
advised by both D'Angelo and Merlino; students may also be assisted
by an electrical engineer and may participate in collaboration with
Naval Research Laboratory scientists
- Students develop
skills including: vacuum, electronics, data acquisition, machining
- Previous PhDs
are now employed in industry, government labs and universities, including
a professor and two research scientists
- In most years,
grant support is available for multiple RA stipends and student travel
to conferences
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Robert
Mutel |
Observational
space physics
- Spacecraft
observations made using Cluster, which is a group of four spacecraft
operated by the European Space Agency
- Planetary
radio emissions (Auroral Kilometric Radiation) are studied using Cluster,
operated in VLBI mode (Very Long Baseline Interferometry)
- Students develop
programming skills using C and Fortran
- Students also
interact with group members including a programmer as well as other
astronomy faculty
- In most years,
grant support is available for an RA stipend and student travel to conferences
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Jack
Scudder |
Experiment
and observation of space plasmas
- Analysis
of data from NASA's Polar spacecraft, in Earth orbit
- Search
for geophysically important plasma processes in near-Earth plasmas
- Computer-intensive
research
- Computing facilities
dedicated to the group include a 24-processor computing cluster
- Students develop
skills in: writing codes in C, Fortran and IDL, and numerical methods
- Two previous PhD
students, placed in three-year postdoc positions at LANL and UC Berkeley
- Students will
also interact with group members including four software engineers as
well as other faculty
- In most years,
grant support is available an RA stipend and student travel to conferences
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Steven
Spangler |
Observational
and theoretical space physics
- Solar
wind and the transition from the solar corona to the solar wind
- Students analyze
data from both ground-based instruments and spacecraft
- Students analyze
data from: ACE, which is NASA's spacecraft in the solar wind, and ISEE,
which is a NASA and European Space Agency spacecraft
- Students develop
skills in numerical methods, writing code in C and other languages
- In most years,
grant support is available for an RA stipend and student travel to conferences
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