The Sun is constantly flinging magnetic energy and charged particles at Earth, and this team is figuring out exactly how that happens—and what it does to the planet's magnetic field. This matters because the same process that lets solar plasma slip into near-Earth space—magnetic reconnection—also drives the space weather that can knock out satellites, disrupt power grids, and scramble GPS signals. The researchers are using new spacecraft data to trace how fine-scale structures on the Sun's surface expand into the solar wind, and how eruptions of material evolve as they travel toward Earth. They are also modelling the magnetic fields of Saturn, Jupiter, Uranus, and Neptune to understand how those planets interact with the solar wind, and continuing to analyse data from the Rosetta mission to comet 67P. If this work succeeds, it will improve forecasts of disruptive space weather events, protecting satellites and ground-based infrastructure. The team is also refining magnetic field instruments for future missions to the outer planets, which will enable more precise measurements of environments we have barely explored. This is primarily fundamental plasma physics—the same processes occur in stars and between galaxies—so the deeper understanding will also inform laboratory experiments and astrophysical models.
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We will carry out a wide range of research projects which will answer important questions about our solar system and the planets within it. We will also study the links between the Sun and interplanetary space through the solar wind, as well as how they affect space around the Earth. Space is filled with small amounts of hot charged particles, called a plasma, along with a magnetic field, so much of the work we do is fundamental plasma physics applied to space and the processes that we study occur throughout the Universe. In our work we will study the fundamental plasma process of reconnection, which releases magnetic energy and is important in allowing plasma from the Sun, the solar wind, to enter near-Earth space. We will also use new data from spacecraft travelling close to the Sun to examine how fine scale structure on the Sun extends out into space. We will study how discrete releases of material from the Sun evolve as they travel into interplanetary space; when they reach the Earth, these objects can cause significant disruption to technological systems on the ground and in Earth orbit. We will also consider other bodies in the solar system, both small and large. We will continue to model the environment around comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko Gerasimenko in order to interpret the rich Rosetta dataset and use measurements of Saturn's magnetic field to probe its interior dynamics. We will consider how the planetary fields of Jupiter and Saturn link into the space around them, and model the interactions between the solar wind plasma and the outer gas giants Uranus and Neptune. These are important topics to study not just because they provide new insight into fundamental physical processes which we do not fully understand, but also because of their effects on our lives, on other areas of science and of what they tell us about our Universe. Our work on plasma physics is related to both laboratory work on the Earth as well as many astrophysical objects such as stars and the space between the galaxies. Our work on giant planets and moons helps us to better characterise the processes that occur on and around exoplanets. While we use theoretical models and computer simulations for some of our work, we also make extensive use of measurements returned from spacecraft in orbit around the Earth, around other planets and around the Sun. In many cases, these measurements are made wholly or in part by scientific instruments designed, built and operated by our laboratory here at Imperial College. London. Our expertise is in making instruments that measure the magnetic field in space - although it is very small, often hundreds of thousands of times smaller than the Earth's, this magnetic field is vital because it interacts with the charged particles in the plasma and it is this interaction that produces the broad range of behaviour that we observe. As part of this proposal, we will also improve on our magnetic field instrument designs, making them more stable and accurate for a future generation of scientific missions, to the outer planets and elsewhere in the Solar System.
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