UROP
Every year many undergraduate students undertake research placements in the SPAT group, making invaluable contributions. We are always looking to engage UG students in our research, and these pages provide more information about how you can get involved.
UROP projects 2023
Projects offered in 2023
The following projects are being offered for summer 2023. Please contact the relevant staff with a CV and brief (no more than a paragraph) statement about your interest in the project.
Long-term trends in magnetometer parameters - Chris Carr
Closing date: 13th March
The European Space Agency’s four-spacecraft ‘Cluster’ mission has been in orbit since the year 2000 and as Imperial is the lead institution for the magnetometer instruments we have accumulated the equivalent of 88 years-worth of orbit-by-orbit parameters which characterise the performance of the sensors. Over this time, certain periodicities are revealed, which may be linked to orbit, temperature, or other external factors. This project will seek to characterise this behaviour, with the aim of improving our knowledge about the overall accuracy of the instruments and seeking to simplify the in-flight calibration processes for the final few years of the mission, which is expected to operate until 2025.
Modelling magnetic fields in the toroidal cores of fluxgate sensors - Chris Carr
Closing date: 13th March
Fluxgate sensors measure the magnetic field vector by modulating the components of the vector using a magnetically-saturable toroid of high-permeability alloy. This project will make a first-principles model of the fields generated through this technique, to check and validate the hypothesis that the flux in the core-saturation state remains constrained within the core (thus avoiding crosstalk between components). If possible, we will link the behaviour to a simplified SPICE model of the fluxgate electronics. Consequently, students would ideally have some experience in electronics simulation e.g., through having taken the Advanced Electronics course.
Locating contrails in multi-camera imagery - Edward Gryspeerdt
Closing date: 5th March
The warming effect of contrails on the climate is over half the total climate impact of aviation, but their properties and evolution are poorly understood from observations, hampering modelling efforts. In this project, you will use multiple new ground-based cameras to locate contrails in 3D, tracking their vertical development. This will provide new constraints on the behaviour of the only man-made cloud type.
Satellite studies of cloud physics - Edward Gryspeerdt
Closing date: 5th March
Previous UROP projects in SPAT
UROP projects 2022
| Project Title | Student | Supervisor |
|---|---|---|
| Analysis of magnetic field data from the RadCube CubeSat | Cara WATERS | Dr Jonathan EASTWOOD |
| "I'm a Space Person" Careers Postcards | Cara WATERS | Dr Martin ARCHER |
| Improving observations of cloud properties | Andrew NICOLL | Dr Edward GRYSPEERDT |
| High-Resolution Spectroscopy for Astrophysics Applications | Shiyun LIU | Dr Christian CLEAR |
| IMAP Fluxgate Magnetometer development | Joaquim PACHECO DICKSON | Prof Timothy HORBURY |
| The role of clouds for uncertainties in climate sensitivity | Thomas COWPERTHWAITE | Dr Paulo CEPPI |
| Using statistical learning methods to quantify the relationship between global warming and clouds | Zhenghe XUAN | Dr Paulo CEPPI |
| Investigating the role of clouds for climate change projections | Maryam AHMED | Dr Paulo CEPPI |
| Investigating the impact of trends in diurnal surface temperature on the Earth’s outgoing longwave radiation | Trystan COVENEY | Prof Helen BRINDLEY |
| Investigating the potential for night-time energy generation | Fei YANG | Prof Helen BRINDLEY |
| Using Multipoint Measurements to Examine Magnetic Reconnection in Earth’s Turbulent Magnetosheath | Clarisse BONACINA | Dr Julia STAWARZ |
UROP projects 2021
| Project Title | Student | Supervisor |
|---|---|---|
| "I'm a Space Person" Careers Postcards | Shafiat DEWAN | Dr Martin ARCHER/Dr Simon FOSTER |
| "I'm a Space Person" Careers Postcards | Cara WATERS | Dr Martin ARCHER/Dr Simon FOSTER |
| Developing new sonification techniques for ultra-low frequency space plasma waves | Marek COTTINGHAM | Dr Martin ARCHER |
| Satellite measurements of power station pollution | Manuel LOURO COELHO | Dr Edward GRYSPEERDT |
| Analysing large-scale numerical simulations of plasma turbulence | Matthew ACEVSKI | Dr Julia STAWARZ |
| Historical and future changes in the coupled terrestrial carbon and water cycles as predicted by CMIP6 models | Ines JIMENEZ | Dr Heather GRAVEN |
| High Resolution Spectroscopy for Astrophysics | Daniel GIBSON | Dr Christian CLEAR |
| Forecasting Radiation for the Lunar Gateway | Aaron THOMAS | Dr Ravindra DESAI |
| Machine Learning applied to Wildfires in Climate Change | Philippe LE GOUZ de SAINT-SEINE | Dr Matthew KASOAR |
| Indian Ocean Dipole's effect on Northern Australian Wildfires | Emir SEZIK | Dr Matthew KASOAR |
| Assessing the role of surface warming patterns for furture jet stream changes | Iakov BRILLIANT/Alice HOPKINS | Dr Paulo CEPPI |
| Searching for methane super-emitters using TROPOMI satellite retrievals | Zanxu WANG | Dr Heather GRAVEN |
UROP projects 2020
| Project Title | Student | Supervisor |
|---|---|---|
| Detecting drift orbit birfurcations using simulations and MMS data | Benyam DEJEN | Dr Paulo CEPPI |
| Forecasting radiation in the Earth's magnetosphere | Luana WILLIAMS | Dr Ravindra DESAI |
| Energy deposition in the upper atmosphere of Saturn | Xinmiao (Anna) HU | Professor Marina GALAND |
| Using a neural network to understand Titan's atmospheric chemistry | George KORODIMOS | Dr Ravindra DESAI |
| Sun-to-earth simulations of flux-ropoe corona mass ejections | Visakan BALAKUMAR | Dr Ravindra DESAI |
| Examining electron vortices in Earth's magnetotail using the Magnetospheric Multiscale Mission | Madalina TUDORACHE | Dr Julia STAWARZ |
| Propogating solar energetic particles in the outer heliosphere | Xinni WU | Dr Ravindra DESAI |
| Shocks in the inner heliosphere | Samuel BENNETT | Dr Heli HIETALA |
| Global simulations of dayside magnetospheric transients and their impacts | Nicholas RAYNS | Dr Heli HIETALA |
| Future changes in carbon isotopes in the terrestrial biosphere | Leonardo BOSSI | Dr Heather GRAVEN |
| Comparison of observed wind speed and direction across London | Emir SEZIK | Dr Heather GRAVEN |
| Future changes in ocean carbon-13 | Elleanor LAMB | Dr Heather GRAVEN |
| Future changes in ocean carbon-13 | Daisy BLAKE | Dr Heather GRAVEN |
| Understanding relationships between El-Nino, wildfire emissions and regional climate change using Earth system model data | Clara BAYLEY | Dr Matthew KASOAR |
| SPAT UROP projects summer 2020 | ||
UROP projects 2019
| Project Title | Student | Supervisor |
|---|---|---|
| The role of clouds for natural climate variability and forced climate change | Paul Curtis | Dr Paulo Ceppi |
| Cassini magnetometer studies: End of MIssion dataset | Daniel Gillies | Prof Michele Dougherty & Dr Greg Hunt |
| Investigating the use of compressional mirror-mode fluctuations in space plasmas for the calibration of magnetometer instruments | Gabriel Maheson | Chris Carr |
| ASTRAEUS | James McKevitt | Dr Ingo Mueller-Wodarg |
| Software support for JUICE Magnetometer Development | Clovis Parker-Jervis | Alex Strickland |
| Solar system science | Katherine Sephton | Dr Adam Masters |
| Data analysis of JUICE Magnetometer ground test campaign | Anne Soltow | Richard Baughen |
| Analysing the substructure of magnetic flux ropes using data from NASA's magnetospheric multiscale mission | Madalina Tudorache | Dr Julia Stawarz |
| Quantifying forcing, feedbacks and climate sensitivity in global climate models | Lisa Winkler | Dr Paulo Ceppi |
| To develop a performance prediction model of magnetic field in Python | Jie Sing Yoo | Chris Carr |
| Calculating Cassini's potential: A high-performance computing study | Zeqi Zhang | Dr Ravi Desai |
| Parker Solar Probe measurements of the near-Sun solar wind | Ronan Laker | Prof Tim Horbury |
| To develop a performance prediction model of magnectic field in Python | Jie Sing Yoo | Chris Carr |
| SPAT UROP projects summer 2019 | ||
UROP projects 2018
| Project Title | Student | Supervisor |
|---|---|---|
| Partitioning of heat transport between ocean and atmosphere | Jack Carlin | Arnaud Czaja |
| Mirror-mode structures in the Earth's magnetosphere investigated using data from the Cluster FGM magnetometers | Han Yau Choong | Chris Carr |
| Development of magnetoresistive sensors for space weather monitoring | Claudia Cobo Torres | Chiara Palla |
| Building a database of simulations for the Forum mission | Xinmiao Hu | Helen Brindley |
| Analysis of PDRMIP solar experiments | Elliott Kasoar | |
| Predicting the space weather effects of coronal mass ejections | Ronan Laker | Tim Horbury |
| Studies of oceanographical tracers | Elleanor Lamb | Heather Graven |
| Development of a magnetic moment inversion system for the screening of magnetic parts to be used in an instrument in development for the ESA JUICE Mission | Adrian Lamoury | Patrick Brown |
| Using machine learning to reduce uncertainty in climate change predictions | Gerald Lim | Peer Nowack |
| Developing a novel ozone parameterization to speed up climate change simulations | Qing Yee Ellie Ong | |
| ITCZ shifts in an intermediate complexity atmospheric model | Burhanuddin Pisavadi | Arnaud Czaja |
| Mirror-mode structures in the Earth's magnetosphere investigated using data from the Cluster FGM magnetometers | Jiatianfu Qu | Chris Carr |
| The intertropical convergence zone in past and future climates | Rhidian Thomas | |
| Study on SFG in the ocean | Henry Throp | Heather Graven |
| Analysing data from the Helios Solar Mission to explore the process of magnetic reconnection | Hanae Tilquin | Jonathan Eastwood |
| SPAT UROP projects summer 2018 | ||