Science AMA Series: Hi Reddit, we’re Benoit Lavraud, Bill Peterson, and
Andrew Yau. We’re all part of AGU’s Geophysical Research Letters and
investigate Sun-Earth magnetic fields. Ask us anything!
Abstract
I am Benoit Lavraud, I am permanent staff researcher at the Institut de
Recherche en Astrophysique et Planétologie in Toulouse - France, and
Editor of Geophysical Research Letters (GRL), a research journal
published by AGU focusing on high-impact scientific advances in all
major geoscience disciplines. My research topics include the whole chain
of phenomena occurring during solar storms between the Sun and the
Earth: What are the basic processes of solar storm release? How do solar
storm propagate/interact in interplanetary space? How do solar storms
trigger geomagnetic activity? What are the key plasma processes
controlling this interaction? Can solar and geomagnetic storms be
predicted? What are the potential impacts of solar storms on society? I
try to tackle these questions through both basic science and
instrumentation (ion and electron spectrometers in space). I am Bill
Peterson, a research associate at the University of Colorado, Boulder,
at the Laboratory of Atmospheric and Space Physics. I have been studying
the space weather and the coupling of the ionospheric, magnetospheric,
and solar wind plasmas using satellite instrumentation since 1973. I
have participated in the design, implementation, and operation of
instruments on several NASA missions focused on space weather. I started
out studying the physical process that that cause the aurora and the
effects of the aurora on the Earth’s magnetosphere and ionosphere. I’m
currently working on identifying how these processes differ at Mars
using data from the MAVEN spacecraft. I am Andrew Yau, Professor of
Physics at University of Calgary, Canada, and Associate Editor of
Geophysical Research Letters (GRL), a research journal published by AGU
focusing on high-impact scientific advances in all major geoscience
disciplines. I am a space scientist. I design satellite instruments such
as ion mass spectrometers, and I study the effects of weather in space
on the Earth’s upper atmosphere and ionosphere. For example, how and why
do solar storms and other space phenomena cause the heating of the upper
atmosphere and its escape into space? How does this heating impact
Earth-orbiting satellites? How does the solar wind produce the aurora,
and the associated electrical currents in the ionosphere? How do these
electrical currents affect radio communications - and impact the
operations of satellite navigation systems such as my cell phone’s GPS
receiver? We’ll be back at 11 am EST (8 am PST, 4 pm UTC) to answer your
questions, ask me anything!