Academic interests
My science interests range from aeronomy (auroral emissions, ionospheric plasma) to planetary space sciences (comets, Mars/Venus).
I am currently involved in the ESA Rosetta mission to comet 67P/C-G with emphasis on the interpretation of ion and plasma measurements from the RPC suite of instruments by use of global hybrid simulations. My interests range from electron and proton precipitation of solar origin in the atmospheres of the Earth, Mars and Venus to the physico-chemical processes at the origin of airglow and aurora in the solar system, using space-born (Mars Express, Rosetta, Cluster, DMSP) and ground-based (EISCAT, ALIS) instrumentation. In order to analyse, understand and interpret these complex datasets, I develop and use numerical models describing in 1-D or in 3-D the space environment of planets and comets.
Background
I hold a PhD in Astrophysics from the University Joseph Fourier of Grenoble, France (2006).
Keywords: Comets, Earth, Mars, Simulations: Hybrid/PIC model development, Kinetic transport of electrons and protons, Ionosphere-Magnetosphere coupling, Optical tomography of the aurora, solar wind mass loading, data analysis and interpretation, Rosetta, Mars Express, EISCAT, ALIS.
Positions held
- Research Associate, Aalto University, Department of Radio Science and Electrical Engineering, Espoo, Finland (2014-2015)
- Researcher, Finnish Meteorological Institute (FMI), Helsinki, Finland (2013)
- Researcher, Belgian Institute for Space Aeronomy (BIRA-IASB), Brussels, Belgium (2008-2012)
- Research fellow, European Space Agency ESA, Noordwijk, Netherlands (2006-2008)