Position: 3rd year PhD student

Supervisors: Prof. Sandra Chapman, Dr Nick Watkins

Project Title: Quantifying Space Weather Turbulence, Extremes and Risk at Earth

Teaching: 1st year undergraduate Physics problems classes

Overview of Research

Space Weather is a growing field of research due to our dependence on satellite/space technologies. There are many different branches of space weather research as a result of the vast magnetic environment created by the solar wind and Earth field system known as the Magnetosphere - this PhD focuses on the Ionosphere, the lowermost region that boarders the atmosphere.

My first research project focuses on Global Total Electron Content (TEC) maps from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL). This data set uses ground GNSS observations of TEC with over 200 ground stations to compile 1 × 1 degree Global Ionospheric Maps (GIMs), produced every 15 minutes. We analyse over 20 years of data (~2 solar cycles).

For each map we look for High-Density Regions (HDRs) of TEC, defined as the level exceeded by the top 1% of TEC in the map, in geomagnetic coordinates. We use a tracking algorithm over consecutive timestamps to define a set of labelled space-time HDRs. This analysis detects, labels and tracks HDR origin, path, areas, TEC intensities and duration. Below shows animated GIFs of example HDRs between 31/10/2003 00:00:00 UTC and 01/11/2003 23:45:00 UTC to demonstrate the detection/tracking algorithm:

Given a set of geomagnetic indices (Dst, Kp and/or F10.7) for some date-time, we can determine how long an HDR will last for and the subsequent dynamics as a result of latitude, season and geomagnetic activity.

Publications

Lead Author:

• Paper in review with Space Weather. Preprint available: Martin Anthony Cafolla, Sandra C Chapman, Nicholas Wynn Watkins, et al. Dynamics of Space-Time TEC Enhancements seen in JPL GIMs: Variations with Latitude, Season and Geomagnetic Activity. ESS Open Archive . December 19, 2024. DOI: 10.22541/essoar.173463008.89578977/v1Link opens in a new window

Co-author:

• Meng, X., Verkhoglyadova, O. P., Chapman, S. C., Watkins, N. W., & Cafolla, M. (2024). Statistical characteristics of total electron content intensifications on global ionospheric maps. Space Weather, 22, e2023SW003695. DOI: 10.1029/2023SW003695

Talks and Poster Sessions

Conference	Date	Location	Presentation Type	Slides/Poster
Autumn MIST 2023	02/12/23	Burlington House, London, UK	Oral	-
EGU 2024	15/04/24 - 20/04/24	Austria Center, Vienna, Austria	Poster	-
UK SWSE 2024	09/09/24 - 12/09/24	Sandy Park, Exeter, UK	Oral	-
ESWW 2024	04/11/24 - 08/11/24	Convento São Fransisco, Coimbra, Portugal	Oral	-
Autumn MIST 2024	29/11/24	The Exchange, Birmingham, UK	Poster	-
AGU 2024*	09/12/24-13/12/24	Walter E. Washington Convention Center, Washington D.C., USA	Poster	-

* Conference not attended, presented by supervisor on my behalf

Background

MSci in Mathematics and Physics within the Natural Sciences Programme, Durham University (2018-2022)

Contact

Email: martin.cafolla.1@warwick.ac.uk

Office: PS1.17

Address: Department of Physics, University of Warwick, Coventry, CV4 7AL

LinkedIn: LinkedIn 

ORCID: 0009-0000-8215-2339