Disturbances from the Sun often referred to as “space weather”, cause geomagnetic storms that can affect critical infrastructure on the ground such as navigation systems, high-voltage electric power transmission grids, and pipelines. Understanding the dynamic response of the coupled solar wind-magnetosphere-ionosphere system to severe space weather is an on-going challenge. This talk will highlight some of my past and on-going applied space weather research efforts and how this information can be used to address societal needs.
Colloquium
Friday, April 30, 2021 - 3:00pm to 4:00pm
· Colloquium
Dr. Chigomezyo Ngwira, Atmospheric and Space Technology Research Associates, Louisville, CO, USA
Friday, April 23, 2021 - 3:00pm to 4:00pm
· Colloquium
John Clem, Bartol Research Institute, Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Delaware
A new measurement of the Cosmic Ray Electron and Positron spectra in the energy range of 20 MeV–1 GeV will be presented. The data were taken during the first flight of the balloon-borne spectrometer Anti Electron Sub-Orbital Payload (AESOP-Lite), which was flown from Esrange, Sweden, to Ellesmere Island, Canada, in May 2018. The payload collected over 130hrs of exposure at an average altitude of 3g/cm^2. The instrument incorporates a gas Cerenkov detector and a magnetic spectrometer to identify particle type and measure the energy.
Friday, April 2, 2021 - 3:00pm to 4:00pm
· Colloquium
Dr. Ilaria Caiazzo, Burke Prize Fellow at the California Institute of Technology
After five decades since the first detection of X-ray polarization from the Crab, we only have a handful of measurements of X-ray polarization from astronomical objects. In recent years, a few small missions, like X-Calibur and PolarLight, have started to increase the pool of observations, pioneering new technologies that will be implemented in larger observatories. This year will mark the start of routine polarization observations of X-ray sources, with the launch of a dedicated mission: IXPE.
Friday, February 12, 2021 - 3:10pm
· Colloquium
Victor Yakovenko, Professor of Physics at the University of Maryland
Abstract: Inequality is an important and seemingly inevitable aspect of the human society. Various manifestations of inequality can be derived from the concept of entropy in statistical physics. In a stylized model of monetary economy, with a constrained money supply implicitly reflecting constrained resources, the probability distribution of money among the agents converges to the exponential Boltzmann-Gibbs law due to entropy maximization. Our empirical data analysis shows that income distributions in the USA, European Union, and other countries exhibit a well-defined two-class structu
Friday, April 10, 2020 - 3:10pm to 4:00pm
· Colloquium
Ming Zhang, Florida Institute of Technology
Friday, March 27, 2020 - 3:10pm to 4:00pm
· Colloquium
Brian Beckford, University of Michigan
The KOTO experiment at J-PARC aims to help explain why we live in a matter dominant universe. It is believed that Charge-Parity (CP) violation is critical in this asymmetry, and studying where new CP violation can enter beyond the predictions of the Standard Model (SM) is an exciting frontier for discovering new physics.
Friday, March 13, 2020 - 3:10pm to 4:00pm
· Colloquium
James Clemmons, University of New Hampshire
The interconnection between the Earth’s ionosphere and its thermosphere is explored through observations of thermospheric anomalies and their associated phenomena. The characteristics of several types of anomalies are presented and the central role played by ion-neutral coupling in forming them is discussed through analysis, theory, and modeling. A particular focus is on the high-altitude winds that both act as drivers and signatures of forcing. New questions regarding I-T interactions are developed based on the results, and future investigations designed to answer these questions are fr