A sudden stratospheric warming (SSW) is a large-scale meteorological phenomenon in the winter stratosphere, which involves a rapid rise in the polar temperature by a few tens of kelvins in several days. SSWs are triggered by an injection of stationary planetary waves from the troposphere. These events are rare in the Southern Hemisphere, therefore they …
Some of the strongest lightning discharges occurring at the Earth surface generate short electromagnetic signals that can propagate at very large distances both at the surface of the planet and in space. During a lightning discharge, the whole electromagnetic spectrum is excited, from radio frequencies to the visible and beyond. The conditions of the atmosphere …
Brought to the interest of the scientific community by the citizen Aurora Chasers group of amateur photographers and enthusiasts, the intriguing nighttime optical phenomenon which got its name “Steve” after an animated movie scene, got an honorary “Sky Wonders” coin, issued by the Canadian Coin & Currency. ESA Living Planet Fellow William Archer with the University …
Steve is a nighttime optical phenomenon shown to be associated with intense subauroral ion drifts (SAID). The phenomenon is described as a purple band of light equatorward of aurora and it is sometimes accompanied by periodic green emissions termed “picket fence”. There are several hypotheses on the physical mechanisms that could be causing Steve and …
The Swarm+ Coupling: High-Low Atmosphere Interactions ITT Statement of Work (SoW) has highlighted the “compelling scientific problem” of “the least-understood causes of planetary winds,” namely planetary outflows induced by “non-thermal (e.g., frictional heating, particle precipitation, wave-particle acceleration) processes.” The Swarm+ Coupling High-Low Atmosphere Interactions: Ion Outflow (“Swarm+ Outflow”) project, which began in May 2019, centers …
The main objective of COSTO (Contribution of Swarm data to the prompt detection of Tsunamis and other natural hazards) project is to better characterize, understand and discover coupling processes and interactions between the ionosphere/magnetosphere, the lower atmosphere and the Earth’s surface and sea level vertical displacements. Natural Hazards induced by tsunamis, earthquakes and volcano eruptions …
New research published in Geophysical Research Letters investigates in-situ ionospheric plasma measurements from the European Space Agency’s Swarm satellites coincident with ground-based optical measurements of the phenomenon known as “Steve”. The authors show that Steve is consistently associated with narrow ionospheric flow channels called subauroral ion drifts (SAID). These observations are unusually intense with faster …
“I greatly appreciate the freedom provided by the ESA Living Planet Fellowship to choose which scientific threads to follow. Meeting other Fellows outside of my field-of-expertise was an incredible way to learn about the diverse advances being made with ESA satellite measurements.” After the end of the Living Planet Fellowship, William was working as …
“The Living Planet Fellowship allowed me to continue in the direction I was pursuing previously, bringing some impactful work to completion. At the same time the networking opportunities allowed me to make new contacts and advance my career.” After the end of the Living Planet Fellowship, Ivan was a Research Associate at the University …
The purpose of the project is to investigate the turbulent nature of geomagnetic field and plasma parameters (electron density and temperature) in the ionosphere as recorded by the Swarm constellation during a period of 4 years (from 1 April 2014 to 31 March 2018). Specifically, fluctuations of these quantities, as well as their scaling features, …
