Position Overview & Specifications

Background/Overview

The Earth’s radiation belts are a highly variable radiation environment, where the radiation level can change by orders of magnitude in hours, as the result of changing conditions emanating from the Sun. Understanding, modelling and ultimately predicting, this environment is important as many of the satellites that society relies on orbit through this region and are susceptible to damage or disruption by high-energy electrons from the belts. The Space Weather and Atmosphere (SWA) team at BAS is looking to hire a Space Weather scientist to investigate the causes of the variability of the Earth’s radiation belts.

Purpose:

BAS has developed the BAS Radiation Belt Model (BAS-RBM), a physics-based model of the Earth’s electron radiation belts, that is used for both research and forecasting. In this project you will use data from the ARASE and GPS satellites, along with the BAS-RBM, to explore the roles played by different electromagnetic waves and other processes that occur in the radiation belts. The focus will be on the behaviour of the radiation belt around geostationary orbit and beyond, and the implications of this for the dynamics of the whole radiation belt. You will also present your results at internal and external meetings and write research papers in collaboration with other members of the SWA team.

While a knowledge of radiation belt physics would be an advantage, we welcome applications from candidates with appropriate backgrounds in related fields such as other aspects of space weather, solar physics, plasma physics, fusion physics and astrophysics. This role can be appointed at either Band D or Band E, depending on experience (see the skill specification for more details) and is a fixed-term appointment for 33 months.

Duties:

Adapt existing software, developed for the Van Allen Probes, to produce boundary and initial conditions for the BAS-RBM, and to provide and evaluate comparisons between the model simulations and data, for any period during the ARASE mission.
Set up a database of electron flux measurements from the GPS satellites and develop software to compare the GPS observations with the model output.
Incorporate new diffusion coefficients for equatorial chorus waves (developed elsewhere in the project) into the BAS-RBM, and then investigate the role of these waves at geostationary orbit and beyond, and how this influences the dynamics at lower radial distances.
Introduce new diffusion coefficients for chorus and plasmaspheric hiss at higher latitudes into the BAS-RBM and evaluate the role of these waves in radiation belt dynamics.
Determine the relative roles of chorus waves and radial diffusion in accelerating electrons to MeV energies when the whole radiation belt out to the last closed drift shell is considered.
Give presentations at monthly team meetings and scientific conferences.
Write research papers in collaboration with other members of the team.

Job Types: Full-time, Permanent

Salary: £31,931.00-£50,790.00 per year

Benefits: