Andrew Kavanagh

Biography

I have been at the British Antarctic Survey since 2012 working on projects involving the dynamics of the middle and upper atmosphere, using both ground and satellite data. Being a Space Weather scientist means that I have been lucky enough to spend time in both the Arctic and Antarctic during my career; the polar regions are the primary gateways by which space weather interacts with the Earth’s atmosphere. I am the PI on two middle atmosphere radars at our Antarctic bases and spend part of my time providing science support for the EISCAT ionospheric radars in Norway Education 1999-2002 PhD in Solar-Terrestrial Physics (Lancaster University) 1995-1999 MPhys. in Physics with Space Science and Technology (University of Leicester) Employment 2012 onwards British Antarctic Survey 2010-2011 Senior Research Associate, Department of Physics, Lancaster University 2005-2010 Senior Research Associate, Department of Communication Systems, Lancaster University 2004-2005 Lecturer (temporary cover), Department of Communication Systems, Lancaster University 2002-2004 Post-doctoral fellow, High Altitude Observatory, National Center for Atmospheric Research, USA In my career to date I have worked on a number of projects related to understanding the Sun-Earth system, these have includes studies of the aurora, HF radio absorption, particle dynamics, geomagnetic pulsations, plasma heating and mesospheric dust. I was very lucky to take part in experiments that generated artificial aurora and be the project scientist for a VLF receiver mounted on a Yorkshire school roof that formed part of the AARDDVARK network.

Research Interest

I study how the layers of the atmosphere and the near-Earth space environment couple together – known as vertical coupling. My main interests are: space weather influences on the neutral middle atmosphere and the effects on regional climate variability around the poles how the meteorology of the lower atmosphere impacts on processes in the upper atmosphere heating of the upper atmosphere via space weather events Each of these is important for our understanding of space weather events and how they impact our lives. There is growing evidence that changes in the solar wind can lead to temperature changes in the polar regions. Waves the transfer energy and momentum into the upper atmosphere can modify conditions that affect satellite signal fade-out & scintillation, and the behaviour of electric current systems. Space weather events lead to heating of the upper atmosphere which in turn affects the lifetime of satellites and space debris in Low Earth Orbit (LEO). This is important to understand since LEO is becoming very crowded and collisions with debris can seriously damage satellites.