Alina Bendt
Pronouns: They/Them
Position: PhD student (4th year)
Supervisor: Prof. Sandra Chapman
Funding: STFC
Background: BSc Physics, University of Aberdeen, 2021 (Machine Learning to Study Disordered Systems)
Project: Solar Wind Turbulence from In-Situ Observations with Solar Orbiter
The solar wind is a stream of energetic particles from the Sun, which for example causes the aurora when interacting with Earth’s magnetosphere. In extreme cases it can severely impact satellites for example, therefore it is included in the National Risk Register. The solar wind is a low-density plasma with high Reynolds number. As in any fluid-like medium, the solar wind exhibits turbulence, a non-linear phenomenon. Turbulence can be observable in for example smoke as swirls, also called eddies. As these swirls break up into smaller swirls which again break up into smaller ones and so on, the energy of one big swirl gets transferred into smaller swirls, which forms the turbulent cascade.
Solar Orbiter, a satellite by NASA and ESA launched in 2020, which is orbiting the sun and taking measurements from within the solar wind, provides us with an unprecedented opportunity to study turbulence. As Solar Orbiter is reaching into orbits closer to the sun than ever before, we can use the solar wind as large scale laboratory for plasma dynamics to study the characteristics of turbulence and its evolution with distance from the sun. We use observations from the Magnetometer (MAG) and the Solar Wind Analyser Suite (SWA) of homogeneous turbulence intervals.
This project studies two mechanisms which are proposed to mediate the energy cascade – coherent structures and waves. To distinguish these two we are modelling and adapting current data analysis methods to apply them to the in-situ measurements.
Publications
Bendt, A., Chapman, S.C. (2025) Ubiquitous threshold for coherent structures in solar wind turbulence, Phys. Rev. Research (doi)
Bendt, A., Chapman, S., and Dudok de Wit, T. (2024) The relative prevalence of wave-packets and coherent structures in the inertial and kinetic ranges of turbulence as seen by Solar Orbiter, ApJ (doi)
Presentations
| Meeting | Date | Type | Content | Doi |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Spring MIST | 08/04/2025 | Poster | Poster pdf | |
| Autumn MIST | 29/11/2024 | Presentation | ||
| MIST Seminar | 06/08/2024 | Presentation | Talk | |
| Dynamics Days 2024 Bremen | 31/07/2024 | Presentation | ||
| EGU | 17/04/2024 | Presentation | doi | |
| Workshop on time-series analysis of noisy data | 15/09/2023 | Presentation & Poster | ||
| EGU | 24/04/2023 | Presentation | doi | |
| Spring MIST | 03/04/2023 | Presentation | Spring MIST slides | |
| CFSA Seminars | 25/07/2022 | Presentation | ||
| Solar Orbiter Summer School | 02/06/2022 | Poster |
Additional Roles:
Graduate Teaching Assistant (2021-2024)
GTA for 1st-year undergraduate physics labs. I guided 1st-year students through electronics experiments and experiments on the Hall effect and also aided in the training of new GTAs.
I received the Warwick Award for Teaching Excellence for postgraduates who teach in 2024 (WATE 2024).
CFSA Computing Helper (2023-2024)
CFSA Computing Quick Guide: computing guide
Module Feedback Coordinator (2022-2024)
I organised and compiled feedback for the physics modules.
Contact details:
Email: alina.bendt@warwick.ac.uk
CFSA Computing: cfsacomputing@warwick.ac.uk
Office: Physical Sciences Building, PS1.17
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