Post-Doctoral Research Fellow in Solar Physics

About the Role

The Solar and Space Sciences research group at Northumbria University in partnership with Lockheed Martin is excited to advertise a postdoctoral position in the field of solar physics. In this role, you will have the opportunity to join one of the largest and diverse groups in the UK in the field of solar and space sciences. The group includes experts in the physics of the solar atmosphere, the solar-terrestrial connection, the magnetosphere and ionosphere, planetary environments and small body systems.

The group has recently expanded to include space instrumentation, which is one of the main topics of the project.

You will work with Dr Patrick Antolin in the delivery of research activity on the project “Analysis Methods for Full-disk Spectroscopic Monitoring of the Sun”, undertaking personal and collaborative research activity, contributing ideas, enhancing techniques or methodologies, and writing up research work for publication.

The position is funded for 8 months
. There is potential for this post to be extended subject to further grant funding.

The most hazardous space weather events, solar eruptions, occur on the visible solar disk and can often go undetected in Extreme Ultra‑Violet (EUV) images of the solar corona. Even when detected, the arrival times and energetic estimations are poorly constrained due to the strong projection effects. Spectroscopic data is essential for properly detecting and measuring the energy content of such events.

This project investigates a spectroscopic EUV instrument concept capable of monitoring the full solar disk at high cadence. Building on NASA’s Multi‑slit Solar Explorer (MUSE) mission, whose 35‑slit spectrograph captures solar eruption dynamics over active regions, we propose extending this multi‑slit approach to full‑disk coverage. Doing so requires new inversion methods for interpreting the resulting complex datasets.

The work of the research fellow will consist in extending the multi‑slit disambiguation approach developed for MUSE and in exploring the feasibility of a full‑disk spectroscopic solar monitor. The project also includes close collaboration with the Lockheed Martin Solar & Astrophysics Laboratory group in Palo Alto, CA, USA.

This project would use ready‑made state‑of‑the‑art whole‑Sun numerical modelling data to achieve the following aims:

• Develop and validate new inversion methods for multi‑slit spectroscopic instruments required to scan the full solar disk.
• Define the observational requirements of the space mission to achieve the desired spatial, temporal and spectral resolution to capture energetic events with the necessary accuracy for space weather forecasting.

The inversion/inference methods to explore include neural networks (e.g. GFAT, SVD, SDC) and Differential Emission Measure, so some knowledge in those fields is desired.

The project’s execution is expected to take place at Northumbria University, UK and Lockheed Martin Solar & Astrophysics Laboratory (LMSAL), Palo Alto, CA, USA. Work in support of the project may be required at other locations per coordination and decision of the PI.

This project will be led by Dr. Patrick Antolin (MUSE Co‑I, Northumbria University), and stems from a collaborative partnership between Northumbria University and Lockheed Martin, which seeks to accelerate space research, boost skills, and foster innovation within the UK’s North East space sector. This Research Project is being delivered within the School of Engineering, Physics and Mathematics of Northumbria University. You will belong to the Solar and Space Physics Research Group, a successful group pursuing high‑international‑priority research across a broad remit of Solar and Space Physics.

The group demonstrates international leadership across theory, numerical modelling, observations of solar and space plasma, data‑intensive science, and a growing reputation for space‑related hardware. The group is also one of the Peaks of Research Excellence of the university, and is home to the North East Space Skills and Technology Centre…