Prof. Stanislav Barabash visited Sun Yat-sen University
Report Time: May 29, 2024, 10:30 AM
Report Location: Meeting Room B102, Haiqin Building 2, Sun Yat-sen University
Report Title: Bubbles in the Solar System: Interactions Between Planets and Their Environments
Reporter: Prof. Stanislav Barabash
Host: Prof. Dmitri Titov
Abstract: The Sun releases a constant stream of tenuous plasma, the solar wind that “carries” with it magnetic field. Planets are obstacles to this stream. When the solar wind meets such an obstacle a complex and exciting interaction begins. A planet can have an intrinsic magnetic field that will acts on and deviate the solar wind particles. Or, the solar wind magnetic field can act on the conductive upper layers of planetary atmospheres, ionospheres, and generates currents there whose magnetic fields, in turn, will deviate the solar wind. In such manner bubbles in the solar wind, or magnetospheres, form. The bubble’s boundaries are not impenetrable and the constant exchange of energy, matter, and momentum with the solar wind occurs. This exchange is manifested by spectacular auroral displays, ionospheric variability, escape of planetary ions, and space weathering of planetary surfaces. We stay within the inner solar system and show how complex, interesting, and exciting the bubbles around Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars are.
Speaker Biography:
Professor Stanislav Barabash is a member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences and the International Academy of Astronautics. He currently serves as the Deputy Director of the Swedish Institute of Space Physics, the Head of Solar System Physics and Space Technology Programs at the institute, and a Professor of Experimental Space Plasma Physics at Umeå University.
Professor Barabash has extensive experience and outstanding achievements in the field of experimental plasma physics, particularly in the study of interactions between solar system bodies and their environments. He has made groundbreaking progress in developing and leading Energetic Neutral Atom (ENA) imaging experiments, pioneering the first ENA imaging experiments for Earth (1995), Mars (2003), Venus (2005), and the Moon (2008). He also leads the ENA instruments on board the BepiColombo mission (expected to reach Mercury in 2025) and the JUICE mission (expected to reach Jupiter in 2031).
In addition, he is an expert in using electron and ion spectrometers for charged particle measurements and was the first to develop an ion velocity measurement technique based on time-of-flight systems. Professor Barabash has contributed to multiple major space missions and instrument research projects, serving as the Principal Investigator (PI) or Co-Principal Investigator (Co-PI) for 12 missions and participating as a hardware and science Co-Investigator in 13 other missions. His research spans a wide range of space exploration projects, from Earth to Jupiter.
He has received numerous prestigious honors, including the COSPAR International Cooperation Award (2018) and the Wallmark Prize from the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences (2003).
