Postdoctoral Scholar - Berkeley, United States - University of California Berkeley

University of California Berkeley

Verified Company

Berkeley, United States

2 weeks ago

Posted by:

Mark Lane

beBee recruiter

Description

Position overview

Percent time: 100

Anticipated start: 7/1/2024

Position duration: 2 years with the possibility of renewal depending on performance and availability of funding.

Application Window

Open date:
April 18, 2024

Next review date:
Friday, May 3, 2024 at 11:59pm (Pacific Time)

Final date:
Friday, Apr 18, 2025 at 11:59pm (Pacific Time)

Applications will continue to be accepted until this date, but those received after the review date will only be considered if the position has not yet been filled.

Position description

POSITION DESCRIPTION

The Ionospheric Connection Explorer (ICON) is a NASA Explorer Mission that has been on orbit since late 2019, collecting ground-breaking measurements of thermospheric and ionospheric densities, temperatures and velocities at low to-middle latitudes.

These can be used for investigations of topics such as ion neutral coupling in planetary atmospheres, atmospheric wave generation/propagation, geomagnetic storm effects, and lower-atmospheric forcing of Geospace.

The Solar PolArization and Directivity X-Ray Experiment (PADRE) is a 12U Cubesat observatory that will observe the Sun in hard X-ray (HXRs) from low earth orbit, with a planned launch in 2026.

PADRE will investigate the accelerated electron angular distribution in solar flares.

These observations will provide a unique opportunity to make stereoscopic X-ray observations and measure the electron anisotropy of individual flares confidently for the first time.

PADRE has one science objective:
determine the angular distribution of accelerated electrons from standalone and joint Solar Orbiter/STIX observations. This will allow the determination of the angular distribution of flare-accelerated electrons.

The Parker Solar Probe (PSP), a mission to touch the Sun, was launched in August 2018 to unlock the mysteries of the Sun's corona and solar wind.

PSP has made 11 solar encounters so far, producing world-class measurements of the solar wind in the Sun's environment and inner heliosphere.

SSL plays a lead role on the PSP science and instrumentation teams for The Solar Wind Electrons Alphas and Protons (SWEAP) and FIELDS investigations.

SWEAP makes measurements of electrons, protons and helium ions and their properties such as density, velocity and temperature using electrostatic analyzers and a Faraday Cup.

FIELDS consists of fluxgate and search coil magnetometers and 5 plasma voltage sensors and makes direct measurements of electric and magnetic fields, radio waves, Poynting flux, absolute plasma density and electron temperature.

These two suite of instruments have collected unprecedented in-situ measurements to investigate the dynamics of solar coronal heating and solar wind acceleration.

HERMES (Heliophysics Environmental and Radiation Measurement Experiment Suite) is a suite of instruments that is mounted on the upcoming Lunar Gateway and will serve as a Heliospheric science experiment and a Space Weather station.

The lunar gateway itself is a space station that is planned to be in a cislunar, near rectilinear halo orbit (NRHO) orbit around the moon with a short-term habitation module for humans and a science laboratory.

For this mission, the SSL is building the ion sensor, called SPAN-Ion, which will provide the science payload with measurements of the ambient ions to measure definitive atmospheric loss around Earth and solar wind acceleration.

Responsibilities of the ICON Position Include:

Develop an area of original scientific research, focused on observation of phenomena in the upper atmosphere by ICON, possibly in coordination with other space-based missions or ground-based observatories.

Disseminate new results in peer-reviewed journals and international conferences.
Present annually at the Space Science Seminar or other colloquia.
Support discussions between the mission operations and science disciplines in developing new strategies for ICON observational campaigns. Support research efforts of undergraduate student interns during the school year and in the SSL Summer REU program.

Responsibilities of the PADRE Position Include:
Characterization of Timepix2/3 based detectors.
Characterization of the spectro polarimetric assembly
Disseminate new results in peer-reviewed journals and international conferences.
Present annually at the Space Science Seminar or other colloquia.
Support development of new concepts of observations in space to advance scientific understanding.

Support discussions between the science and mission operations with other heliophysics missions like Parker Solar Probe, the Solar Dynamics Observatory and others.

Responsibilities for Parker Solar Probe SWEAP/FIELDS Position(s) include:
Analyze PSP plasma (ions and electrons) data and/or (magnetic and electric) field, plasma wave, and radio data.
Characterize PSP data with respect to understanding the effects of space weather, such as turbulence, waves, instabilities, wave-particle interactions, recon