Do small-scale, high-magnitude Poynting fluxes statistically dominate in the dayside cusp?

Daniel is a Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Saskatchewan, Canada, specializing in magnetosphere-ionosphere-thermosphere coupling. He mainly works with data from the Super Dual Auroral Radar Network (SuperDARN), using it along with other instruments to probe the effects of ionospheric flows on the upper atmosphere.

Daniel completed a Masters in Astrophysics at Aberystwyth University, UK, before undertaking a PhD at Lancaster University, UK. Daniel’s PhD project also involved the extensive use of SuperDARN data, together with all-sky cameras, interferometers and models, to see how upper atmospheric winds can modulate energy input from the solar wind. Daniel spent 3 months of his PhD on a JSPS fellowship at the University of Electro-Communications, Tokyo, working closely with auroral imagery and interferometers.

Research Objectives

• Determine how the scale size of SWARM Poynting flux measurements influence the mean on a global scale, with particular interest given to the cusp region.
• Investigate the variability of Poynting flux within large scale features such as the large-scale convection.
• Find occurrences of prolonged upward Poynting flux and examine their extent, both spatially and temporally.

Read more on the research project sheet.