Thermosphere Ionosphere Mesosphere Aeronomy Group

Post 1: Upper atmosphere winds - Dr Martin Jarvis



Project

Winds in the rarefied atmosphere of the mesosphere (60-90km altitude) and thermosphere (250km altitude) can reach velocities of several hundred metres per second. These winds can be driven through the action of the solar wind from above or by the action of atmospheric waves propagating up from below. The project will relate upper atmosphere wind data, previously recorded in Antarctica, to other geophysical parameters accessed through the internet from world data centres. Some computing will be necessary using IDL. [IDL is a powerful high level interactive computing language which is easy to learn provided the user has previous experience of applied computing in a standard language (e.g. FORTRAN or C)].



Qualifications

The post requires previous experience of programming (no IDL experience necessary) and is suitable for a physical sciences student. No previous knowledge of the research area is necessary but once into the project the student should be able to work on their own using their initiative.



Duration

The appointment will be for 10 weeks.