Research
Earth’s magnetic field acts a barrier to the solar wind, forming our magnetosphere with a bow shock upstream that slows and deflects the supersonic plasma around it. However, this is a highly dynamic and non-linear process with many complicated feedback mechanisms. These result in various transient phenomena which can have localised and even global impacts on the magnetosphere affecting the energetic particles in the radiation belts, electrical currents directed into and through the top of the atmosphere, auroral processes and launching a cacophony of different ultra-low frequency waves analogous to sound. These impacts can severely impact on our space- and ground-based technology and infrastructure, resulting in technological, economic and societal repercussions known as space weather. My research career has focused on many of these dynamical processes, investigating their origins, properties and consequences.