The group is the largest in the UK working on ground-based studies of the Earth's outer environment, and allied areas, consisting of about 35 research personnel. The basis of its programme is its technical expertise in the design, construction, and operation of radar systems for the study of the ionosphere and upper atmosphere, and the wealth of data which these facilities return on a wide range of scientific areas. The radars are operated in conjunction with other ground-based facilities such as the EISCAT radars and ionospheric heater, as well as with spacecraft. Research interests include solar wind-magnetosphere-ionosphere interactions, ionospheric waves and instabilities, and atmospheric gravity waves and large-scale ocean waves. The group has also instituted a programme of related work on the environments of other planets using spacecraft data. In addition, the programme involves areas of applied and technological interest, such as the effect of the ionosphere on direction-finding and communications systems, and attracts funding from industry and other agencies as well as from UK research councils.
The immediate future programme of the group will centre on radar measurements of the polar ionosphere using the CUTLASS radars, which were built, deployed and operated by the Group, together with the applied work on radio systems. A proposal has been made to the European Commission to set up a principally ground-based research network of European groups, lead from Leicester, whose aim is to expand activities in multi-technique studies (radar, optical, magnetic, and modelling). We will also be active in new coordinated ground-space experiments using existing and new space missions, such as the German-lead Equator-S mission and Cluster II. Our programme of future planetary science studies will also be developed through participation in the ESA/NASA Cassini mission to Saturn, and the ESA Rosetta mission to comet Wirtanen. In addition, we are also studying possibilities for future experimental programmes using both new ground-based radars and space-borne UV and X-ray remote-sensing techniques.
PDRA for co-ordinated ground-based Equator-S studiesA Vacancy will exist in the second half of 1997 for a PPARC-funded Post-doctoral Research Associate within the Radio and Space Plasma Physics Group
Equator-S is a German-lead satellite mission due for launch onboard an Ariane-4 in November 1997. It is an extremely well instrumented spacecraft with an equatorial orbit with apogee at ~10 Earth Radii and perigee at ~ 500 km. The main purpose of the mission is to study the plasma physics of the key interaction regions which govern the large scale physics of the Earth's magnetosphere. The spacecraft will have an extremely rapid spin rate, allowing an investigation of thin magnetospheric structures such as the magnetopause with an unprecedented degree of spatial and temporal resolution. Such studies will take place early in the mission when the spacecraft has apogee near the dayside of the magnetosphere. Following orbital precession round to the nightside magnetosphere after some 6 months, substorm phenomena in this little-studied region of the magnetotail will be possible.
This three year post on the RA1A scale will be focussed on the exploitation of the data from Equator-S in conjunction with ground-based instrumentation from, for example, the SuperDARN and EISCAT Svalbard radars and optical instrumentation.
The candidate should have a Ph. D. in a subject related to Solar-Terrestrial or space plasma physics. A knowledge of C, FORTRAN, IDL or UNIX would be an advantage. The closing date is 30 September 1997.
Further particulars and an application form are available from the Personnel Office (Research Appointments), University of Leicester, University Road, Leicester LE1 7RH, UK. Tel: +44-116-223-1341.
Enquiries may also be directed to Professor Stan Cowley E-mail: swhc1@ion.le.ac.uk; Tel: +44-116-223-1331; Fax: +44-116-252-3555
These pages are administered by: jpa2@ion.le.ac.uk