Prof S W H Cowley - Professor of Solar-Planetary Physics - Head of Group

Dr N F Arnold - PPARC Advanced Fellow
Prof T B Jones - Professor of Ionospheric Physics
Prof M Lester - Professor of Solar-Terrestrial Physics
Dr S E Milan - Lecturer
Prof T R Robinson - Professor of Space Plasma Physics
Dr A J Stocker - Senior Lecturer (Engineering)
Dr E C Thomas - Head of Technical Services
Dr E M Warrington - Reader (Engineering)
Dr T K Yeoman - Reader

The Radio and Space Plasma Physics Group at the University of Leicester is the largest in the UK whose work centers on ground-based studies of the Earth’s outer environment and related areas. It consists of about 40 individuals, academic staff, technical and support staff, research fellows, and research students. The research programme concerns the study of the outer plasma environment of the Earth (and other planets), i.e. the ionosphere and magnetosphere, and their interactions with the solar wind plasma on the outside, and the neutral atmosphere on the inside. Fundamental research in these areas is undertaken in the Department of Physics & Astronomy, where six of the senior academic staff hold their appointments (Profs Cowley, Lester, Jones, and Robinson, and Drs Arnold and Yeoman). An understanding of the ionosphere is also immediately relevant to the operation of radio and radar systems directed towards a variety of applications. The Group consequently also conducts a programme of applied research in the Radio Systems Laboratory of the Department of Engineering, where two members of academic staff hold their appointments (Drs Stocker and Warrington).

The primary resource for the programme in the Department of Physics & Astronomy is a Rolling Grant awarded biennially by the PPARC, which supports our experimental and theoretical scientific work, technical innovations, and Group technical, computing, and administrative infrastructure. The current value is ~£500 k per annum. Major experimental programmes are funded through individual PPARC project grants. At present we hold grants for the operations and maintenance of the CUTLASS radar system (~£150 k per annum), and for the development and construction of the SPEAR high-power radar (at a cost of ~£2 M over 3 years). The programme in the Department of Engineering is funded through a variety of contracts, mainly with EPSRC and the defence agencies. Science-related contract work is also undertaken in the Department of Physics, where, for example, we have recently delivered a fully-funded HF radar to the Communications Research Laboratory, Tokyo, which has been deployed in Alaska.