Uppsala

Opportunities for PhD Studies in Space Physics

The Swedish Institute of Space Physics, Uppsala, is integrated with the Uppsala University Department of Physics and Astronomy. The institute in Uppsala has extensive research programs in space physics, with ample opportunities for PhD research projects, and several professors and senior scientists to serve as graduate student advisors. There are also close links to other groups at the university, notably in astrophysics. It is expected that the department and division jointly can provide financial support for 5 - 8 graduate students in total in space physics, and that 1 - 2 new students per year can be accepted.

Space Plasma Physics Research Programme

The Space Plasma Physics Research Programme carries out experimental research in space plasma physics using data from instruments on satellites, and in the future also on space probes. Data sets are now under study from ESA four-satellite Cluster mission and from the NASA Cassini mission.

Examples of current research topics are:

Magnetic reconnection in the terrestrial magnetosphere.
Plasma processes in the magnetosphere of Saturn and in the ionosphere of Titan.
Particle acceleration and heating in space plasma.
Development of state of the art satellite instrumentation and of software tools.

The programme also has an instrument on the ESA mission Rosetta to a comet.

The programme also carries out experimental research in space physics, utilising data from ground-based instruments at high latitudes, in co-ordination with measurements on national and international satellites. Our main ground-based instruments are provided by the large-scale international research facility EISCAT (European Incoherent Scatter Association) with radar stations in Tromsö, Kiruna, Sodankylä and on Svalbard.

An example of a current research topic is:

The acceleration and outflow of ionospheric Oxygen and its effect on the stability of the magnetospheric plasma and current distribution.

Most of our work is carried out in wide international collaboration and we can offer PhD student supervision in a very international environment.

Contact person: Prof. Mats André, ma@irfu.se , phone +46 - 18 471 59 13

Last update: 2013-09-17 13:20 /Liza Dackborn