About
Dr Robert Fear is an Associate Professor in Space Physics, and head of the Space Environment Physics group. After completing his PhD at University College London's Mullard Space Science Laboratory, he was a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Leicester. He joined the University of Southampton as an STFC Ernest Rutherford Fellow (2013-18). His research interests are in large-scale solar wind/magnetosphere/ionosphere coupling, and he has extensive experience in the use of in situ satellite data, radar data and global-scale auroral imaging to understand the dynamics of the region of space occupied by the Earth’s magnetic field (the magnetosphere) and its influence on the upper layers of the Earth’s atmosphere (the ionosphere). In recent years, his research interests have broadened to include global scale magnetospheric dynamics during periods when the interplanetary magnetic field is northward, which has led to several key publications on this topic in the Journal of Geophysical Research, Geophysical Research Letters and Science magazine. Community roles include membership of MIST Council, the UK representative body for Magnetospheric, Ionospheric and Solar Terrestrial physics (2011-2017), and he is a member of STFC’s Astronomy Grants Panel (2017-).
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Research
Research interests
- Magnetic reconnection
- Large-scale solar wind-magnetosphere-ionosphere coupling
- Global magnetospheric dynamics
- Formation, evolution and dynamics of transpolar arcs and other polar cap auroras
- Formation, structure and global contribution of flux transfer events
Current research
Large-scale solar wind-magnetosphere-ionosphere coupling
Global magnetospheric dynamics using combined in situ and ionospheric data
Formation, evolution and dynamics of transpolar arcs and polar cap auroras
Formation, structure and global contribution of flux transfer events (FTEs)
Magnetospheric dynamics associated with northward interplanetary magnetic field
Fine-scale auroral structure in the polar cap and auroral oval
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Supervision
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Teaching
Lecturer/module lead for PHYS2023 Wave Physics
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