Research interests

My research focuses on the interaction between the solar wind and atmospheres/ionospheres of different solar system object. Lately, I have been looking mostly at the plasma environments around comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko using observations made by the Rosetta spacecraft, and around Venus using Venus Express data. I have also done a few studies using Mars Express observations and as a PhD-student (long time ago!) I was analysing data from Earth-bound satellites.

One thing I am particularly interested in is the influence of the spacecraft potential on low energy ion measurements. The Rosetta spacecraft frequently charged up to -20 V and newborn cometary ions with low energies are accelerated but the potential field around the spacecraft and are measured at a higher energy than they originally had. Unfortunately, their trajectories also changes and it is genrally very difficult to determine from which direction they originated. Using models one can compensate for some of these effects and study the physics at low energies.

In parallel I study Venus. I am investigating how big role wave-particle interaction may play for ion heating and acceleration in Venus' ionosphere. I also interested in looking at the ion velocity distributions observed by Venus Express to see how much imformation about the plasma dynamics that can be extracted from them.

Missions and Instruments

I am working for and with these particle instruments on the following space missions:

Mission Target Instrument
Rosetta 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko ICA (Ion Composition Analyzer)
Venus Express Venus ASPERA-4
Mars Express Mars ASPERA-3
JUICE Jupiter PEP (Particle Enviroment Package)