Sarah Matthews (physicist)

Last updated

Sarah Matthews
Born
Sarah Anna Matthews
NationalityBritish
Scientific career
FieldsAstronomy
Solar Physics
Institutions University College London
Mullard Space Science Laboratory (1996–present)

Sarah Anna Matthews is a British physicist. She is professor and head of solar physics at University College London's Mullard Space Science Laboratory (MSSL). [1] She is also chairperson of UK Solar Physics. [2]

Contents

Biography

Born in London, Matthews graduated from the University of Glasgow with a first class honours BSc in 1992, and remained in Glasgow to undertake a PhD in the study of solar flares under the supervision of John Campbell Brown. After being awarded her doctorate in 1996, she joined MSSL to work on the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory mission. She has remained a member of the Laboratory's solar physics group ever since, advancing from a lectureship and a readership to her current professorial chair. She is also the Director of Education and the programme director of the MSc course in Space Science and Engineering at MSSL's parent institution, University College London. [3]

Research interests

Matthews has a wide range of research interests within the field of solar physics. These include -

Space missions

Awards

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics</span> Research organization at the University of Colorado Boulder

The Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics (LASP) is a research organization at the University of Colorado Boulder. LASP is a research institute with over one hundred research scientists ranging in fields from solar influences, to Earth's and other planetary atmospherics processes, space weather, space plasma and dusty plasma physics. LASP has advanced technical capabilities specializing in designing, building, and operating spacecraft and spacecraft instruments.

The UCL Mullard Space Science Laboratory (MSSL) is the United Kingdom's largest university space research group. MSSL is part of the Department of Space and Climate Physics at University College London (UCL), one of the first universities in the world to conduct space research. Since its establishment, MSSL has participated in 35 satellite missions, 10 of which are currently in operation, and in over 200 sounding rocket experiments.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hinode (satellite)</span> Japanese satellite

Hinode, formerly Solar-B, is a Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency Solar mission with United States and United Kingdom collaboration. It is the follow-up to the Yohkoh (Solar-A) mission and it was launched on the final flight of the M-V rocket from Uchinoura Space Center, Japan on 22 September 2006 at 21:36 UTC. Initial orbit was perigee height 280 km, apogee height 686 km, inclination 98.3 degrees. Then the satellite maneuvered to the quasi-circular sun-synchronous orbit over the day/night terminator, which allows near-continuous observation of the Sun. On 28 October 2006, the probe's instruments captured their first images.

Colin Robert McInnes is a Scottish engineer known for his work in solar sails. He is currently one of the leading figures in the field, being the author of over 50 solar sail papers since 2001. He also wrote a book on the subject, Solar Sailing: Technology, Dynamics and Mission Applications, which is commonly referenced in solar sail journal papers.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Aditya-L1</span> Space mission to Sun

Aditya L1 is a planned coronagraphy spacecraft to study solar atmosphere, currently being designed and developed by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) and various other Indian research institutes. It will be inserted in a halo orbit around the L1 point between the Earth and the Sun where it will study the solar atmosphere, solar magnetic storms and its impact on environment around Earth.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chris Rapley</span>

Christopher Graham Rapley is a British scientist and scientific administrator. He is Professor of Climate Science at University College London, a member of the Academia Europaea, Chair of the European Science Foundation's European Space Sciences Committee, Patron of the Surrey Climate Commission, a member of the scientific advisory board of Scientists Warning, a member of the UK Clean Growth Fund Advisory Board, and a member of the UK Parliamentary and Scientific Committee. His previous posts include Director of the Science Museum, London, Director of the British Antarctic Survey, Chairman of the London Climate Change Partnership, President of the Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research, Vice President of the European Science Foundation's European Polar Board, Executive Director of the International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme, and founder and leader of UCL Mullard Space Science Laboratory's (MSSL) Remote Sensing Group.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">OSO 7</span>

OSO 7 or Orbiting Solar Observatory 7, before launch known as OSO H is the seventh in the series of American Orbiting Solar Observatory satellites launched by NASA between 1962 and 1975. OSO 7 was launched from Cape Kennedy on 29 September 1971 by a Delta N rocket into a 33.1° inclination, low-Earth orbit, and re-entered the Earth's atmosphere on 9 July 1974. It was built by the Ball Brothers Research Corporation (BBRC), now known as Ball Aerospace, in Boulder Colorado.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lucie Green</span> British astronomer

Lucinda "Lucie" May Green is a British science communicator and solar physicist.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Louise Harra</span> British physicist

Louise Harra is a Northern Irish physicist, born in Lurgan, County Armagh, Northern Ireland. She is the Director of the World Radiation Centre of the Physical Meteorological Observatory in Davos (PMOD/WRC) and affiliated professor at the Institute of Particle Physics and Astrophysics of ETH Zurich.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Miniature X-ray Solar Spectrometer CubeSat</span>

The Miniature X-ray Solar Spectrometer (MinXSS) CubeSat was the first launched National Aeronautics and Space Administration Science Mission Directorate CubeSat with a science mission. It was designed, built, and operated primarily by students at the University of Colorado Boulder with professional mentorship and involvement from professors, scientists, and engineers in the Aerospace Engineering Sciences department and the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics, as well as Southwest Research Institute, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, and the National Center for Atmospheric Research's High Altitude Observatory. The mission principal investigator is Dr. Thomas N. Woods and co-investigators are Dr. Amir Caspi, Dr. Phil Chamberlin, Dr. Andrew Jones, Rick Kohnert, Professor Xinlin Li, Professor Scott Palo, and Dr. Stanley Solomon. The student lead was Dr. James Paul Mason, who has since become a Co-I for the second flight model of MinXSS.

ESA Vigil, formerly known as Lagrange, is a planned solar weather mission by the European Space Agency. In development is a spacecraft to be positioned at the fifth Lagrangian point, L5. From there it would get a 'side' view of the Sun, observing regions of solar activity on the solar surface before they turn and face Earth.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Emma Bunce</span> British physicist

Emma J. Bunce is a British space physicist and Professor of Planetary Plasma Physics at the University of Leicester. She holds a Royal Society Wolfson Research Merit Award. Her research is on the magnetospheres of Saturn and Jupiter. She is principal investigator (PI) of the MIXS instrument on BepiColombo, was deputy lead on the Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer proposal, and co-investigator on the Cassini–Huygens mission.

Lyndsay Fletcher is a Scottish astrophysicist at the University of Glasgow who specialises in solar flares.

Polarimeter to Unify the Corona and Heliosphere (PUNCH) is a future mission by NASA to study the unexplored region from the middle of the solar corona out to 1 AU from the Sun. PUNCH will consist of a constellation of four microsatellites that through continuous 3D deep-field imaging, will observe the corona and heliosphere as elements of a single, connected system. The four microsatellites were initially scheduled to be launched in October 2023, but they have since been moved to an April 2025 launch in rideshare with SPHEREx.

Therese "Terry" Kucera is an astrophysicist in NASA Goddard Space Flight Center's Solar Physics Laboratory. Her research interests center on the solar atmosphere, especially solar prominences and prominence cavities. She currently serves as Project Scientist for NASA's STEREO project.

Janet G. Luhmann is an American physicist and senior fellow of the Space Sciences Laboratory of the University of California, Berkeley. She has made major contributions to a wide range of topics in planetary, solar, magnetospheric, and heliospheric physics. She is the principal investigator of the IMPACT instrument suite on the twin-spacecraft STEREO mission. IMPACT stands for In-situ Measurements of Particles and Coronal mass ejection (CME) Transients. It consists of a, "suite of seven instruments that samples the 3-D distribution of solar wind plasma electrons, the characteristics of the solar energetic particle (SEP) ions and electrons, and the local vector magnetic field."

Lidia van Driel-Gesztelyi is a Hungarian solar scientist and professor of physics at the Mullard Space Science Laboratory of University College London. She also maintains affiliations with Solar and Stellar Activity Research Team at Konkoly Observatory of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences and the Space Research Laboratory (LESIA) of Paris Observatory. She has been Editor-in-Chief of the journal Solar Physics since 2005 and has served in leadership roles within the International Astronomical Union.

Graziella Branduardi-Raymont is an Italian physicist. She is a professor at University College London's Mullard Space Science Laboratory (MSSL).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">James Dungey</span> British space scientist

James Wynne "Jim" Dungey (1923–2015) was a British space scientist who was pivotal in establishing the field of space weather and made significant contributions to the fundamental understanding of plasma physics.

References

  1. UCL (20 November 2018). "Prof. Sarah Matthews". UCL Department of Space and Climate Physics. Retrieved 11 May 2020.
  2. "About UKSP | UK Solar Physics" . Retrieved 11 May 2020.
  3. "Sarah Matthews". SOLARNET.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  4. Knapton, Sarah (9 February 2020). "How the British-built Solar Orbiter's mission of discovery will make a giant leap in our understanding of the Sun". The Telegraph. ISSN   0307-1235 . Retrieved 23 June 2020.
  5. RAS staff (1 February 2020). "RAS Awards 2020". Astronomy & Geophysics. 61 (1): 1.9–1.10. Bibcode:2020A&G....61a.1.9R. doi:10.1093/astrogeo/ataa004. ISSN   1366-8781.
  6. UCL (15 January 2020). "Prof. Sarah Matthews named James Dungey Lecturer in RAS 2020 Awards". UCL Department of Space and Climate Physics. Retrieved 11 May 2020.