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Recent Updates

• 3/17/22: Gregory Howes named 2022 University of Iowa Scholar of the Year

  The Office of the Vice President for Research (OVPR) at the University of Iowa has selected Associate Professor Gregory Howes as a Scholar of the Year as part of its annual Discovery and Innovation Awards program.

  The Scholar of the Year award celebrates nationally recognized recent achievement in outstanding research, scholarly and/or creative activities by tenure- and/or research-clinical-track faculty members within the previous 24-month period.

  In his nomination for the award, Professor John Goree highlighted “Laboratory measurements of the physics of auroral electron acceleration by Alfven waves," a paper written by a team led by Howes. The June 2021 paper published in Nature Communications provides definitive evidence that the most brilliant auroras are produced by powerful electromagnetic waves during geomagnetic storms. The phenomena, known as Alfven waves, accelerate electrons toward Earth, causing the particles to produce the familiar atmospheric light show.

  The study concludes a decades-long quest to demonstrate experimentally the physical mechanisms for the acceleration of electrons by Alfven waves under conditions corresponding to Earth’s auroral magnetosphere. The paper generated 181 news articles, from six continents; CNN, NPR, and BBC were among the news outlets that reported on this paper.

  Professor Howes has secured $5.782 million in grants in 13 years at the University of Iowa. From February 2020 to February 2022 his grants exceeded $3.3 million from agencies including NASA, the Department of Energy, and the National Science Foundation.

  Howes was among the recipients of 14 Discovery and Innovation awards that recognize exceptional researchers, scholars, innovators, students, and administrators at the University of Iowa.

  Announcement from Department of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Iowa

• 3/29/22: 2021 Top 25 Physics Articles

  Our paper "Laboratory measurements of the physics of auroral electron acceleration by Alfven waves" was selected as one of the Top 25 Physics Articles in 2021 published in Nature Communications.

• 6/7/21: American Astronomical Society Press Briefing

  Professor Jim Schroeder (Wheaton College, IL) and Professor Gregory Howes present the results from their recently published Nature Communications paper, "Laboratory measurements of the physics of auroral electron acceleration by Alfven waves" in a Press Briefing at the 238th Meeting of the American Astronomical Society. This exciting work uses laboratory experiments at UCLA's Large Plasma Device (LAPD) to demonstrate definitively that the physics of electrons surfing on Alfven waves can explain the energetic electrons that precipitate into the ionosphere and denerate discrete auroral arcs during geomagnetic storms. Press releases and briefings have been issued by

  1. University of Iowa Physicists determine how auroras are created
  2. UCLA: ‘Surfing’ particles: Physicists solve a mystery surrounding aurora borealis
  3. Wheaton College: Wheaton Professor Discovers the Force Behind the Northern Lights
  4. American Astronomical Society Press Briefing: Auroral Electrons Surfing on Alfven Waves

  The Nature Communications paper was published at 11:00am EDT on 7 June 2021 can be accessed at Laboratory measurements of the physics of auroral electron acceleration by Alfven waves

  The paper has also been featured as an Editor's Highlight for Nature Communications in the research area of “Astronomy and Planetary Science.”

  Detailed information about this exciting project can be found here on my website under the Research tab, Auroral Electron Acceleration

  Press Coverage of our results can be found at:

  1. CNN: The mysterious origin of the northern lights has been proven
  2. NPR: What Causes The Northern Lights? Scientists Finally Know For Sure
  3. BBC: Aurora borealis: How northern lights are created has now been discovered
  4. NASA: Lab Experiments Shed New Light on NASA Satellite Observations
  5. NSF: 'Surfing' particles: Physicists solve a mystery surrounding the aurora borealis
  6. Popular Science: We finally know what sparks the Northern Lights
  7. Physics World: Electrons ‘surf’ on Alfvén waves in plasma-chamber experiments
  8. Phys.org: Physicists report definitive evidence how auroras are created
  9. Discover Magazine The Secret to Brilliant Auroras? ‘Surfing’ Electrons
  10. Business Insider: Scientists have solved a decades-old mystery about how auroras form in the sky
  11. Ars Technica: Physicists find “definitive evidence” of mechanism behind brightest auroras
  12. Eurekalert: Physicists report definitive evidence how auroras are created
  13. Eurekalert: 'Surfing' particles: Physicists solve a mystery surrounding aurora borealis
  14. Inverse: Physicists Solved a Longstanding Mystery of the Aurora Borealis
  15. The Weather Network: The mystery behind what powers the Northern Lights has now been solved
  16. Science Alert: For The First Time, Physicists Have Confirmed The Enigmatic Waves That Cause Auroras
  17. Sci Tech Daily: At Last, Physicists Report Definitive Evidence of How Brilliant Auroras Are Created
  18. Sci Tech Daily: “Surfing” Particles on Alfvén Waves: Physicists Solve a Mystery Surrounding Aurora Borealis
  19. Science Daily: Physicists report definitive evidence how auroras are created
  20. Space Daily: Physicists determine how auroras are created
  21. Space.com: Earth's aurora origin mystery solved by 'surfing' electrons
  22. Space Ref: Physicists Report Definitive Evidence On How Auroras Are Created
  23. Newser: Scientist Say They Now Know How an Aurora Occurs
  24. Academic Times: The northern lights are caused by electrons hurtling toward Earth — and now we know how they get there
  25. Science News: Auroras form when electrons from space ride waves in Earth’s magnetic field
  26. MSN: The mystery behind what powers the Northern Lights has now been solved
  27. MSN: For The First Time, Physicists Have Confirmed The Enigmatic Waves That Cause Auroras
  28. Yahoo! News: Scientists have solved a decades-old mystery about how auroras form in the sky
  29. News Central Site: Physicists report definitive evidence how auroras are created
  30. Astrobites: Astrobites at AAS 238: Day 1
  31. Daily Magazine: Scientists have solved a decades-old mystery about how auroras form in the sky
  32. Labroots: Physicists Find Definitive Proof of What Causes the Northern Lights
  33. Live Science: Electrons 'surf' across space to create the northern lights, new study finds
  34. ZME Science: Physicists find definite proof of how auroras are born
  35. myScience: ’Surfing’ particles: Physicists solve a mystery surrounding aurora borealis
  36. Tech Explorist: Definitive evidence how auroras are formed
  37. ScienMag: ‘Surfing’ Particles: Physicists Solve A Mystery Surrounding Aurora Borealis
  38. Interesting Engineering: Physicists Think They Know Exactly What Causes Auroras
  39. Earth.com News: Northern lights linked to electrons traveling at millions of miles per hour
  40. Nature World News: Scientists Recreate Aurora Borealis in Lab to Understand How Northern Lights Are Formed
  41. Wonderful Engineering: Physicists Have Revealed The True Reason That Causes Auroras
  42. Smart Brief: Scientists confirm cause of northern lights
  43. Newsy: Physicists Prove Origins Of Northern Lights
  44. Eminetra: Physicists from University of Iowa prove what causes the Northern Lights
  45. YubaNet.com: Physicists report definitive evidence how auroras are created
  46. KGAN CBS2 Cedar Rapids: University of Iowa physicists prove cause of the aurora for the first time
  47. KCRG ABC9 Cedar Rapids: University of Iowa physicists prove origins of northern lights
  48. Iowa City Press Citizen: New research, helped by UIowa scientists, explains age-old mystery behind northern lights
  49. KMOV4 St. Louis: The mysterious origin of the northern lights has been proven
  50. KITV Honolulu: The mysterious origin of the northern lights has been proven
  51. KMBC-TV Kansas City: Has the mysterious origin of the northern lights been revealed? These physicists say yes
  52. WISN Milwaukee: Has the mysterious origin of the northern lights been revealed? These physicists say yes
  53. WAPT Jackson, Mississippi: Has the mysterious origin of the northern lights been revealed? These physicists say yes
  54. WMTW Maine: Has the mysterious origin of the northern lights been revealed? These physicists say yes
  55. WSVN Miami: The mysterious origin of the northern lights has been proven
  56. WTOP News Washington, DC: Científicos logran probar el misterioso origen de la aurora boreal
  57. Northwest Indiana Times: The mysterious origin of the northern lights has been proven
  58. KOAA News5, Southern Colorado: Physicists from University of Iowa prove what causes the Northern Lights
  59. CNN Español: Científicos logran probar el misterioso origen de la aurora boreal
  60. CNN Brasil: Novo estudo prova origem misteriosa da aurora boreal
  61. CNN Greece: Λύθηκε το μυστήριο για την προέλευση του φωτός που εκπέμπει το Βόρειο Σέλας
  62. CTV News (Canada): The Great Aurora Mystery Finally Solved
  63. Vaughan Today (Canada): Science has finally proven the origin of the aurora borealis
  64. Daily Mail (UK): The northern lights are caused by powerful electromagnetic waves that accelerate electrons millions of miles per hour toward Earth, scientists confirm
  65. Metro (UK): Mystery of auroras solved as physicists conclude decades-long quest
  66. Evening Standard (UK): Physicists report evidence of how auroras are created
  67. IFL Science (UK): Aurorae Are Created By Electrons Surfing Special Waves, Lab Tests Have Proven
  68. Whitehaven News (UK): Physicists report evidence of how auroras are created
  69. Daily Echo (UK): Physicists report evidence of how auroras are created
  70. Life in Norway (Norway): What Causes the Northern Lights?
  71. Notimerica (Spain): La prueba definitiva de cómo se crean las auroras
  72. Cosmos (Australia): Aurora created in a lab
  73. SWI swissinf.ch (Switzerland): Las auroras boreales son causadas por poderosas ondas electromagnéticas
  74. Global Science (Italy): Come nascono le aurore boreali
  75. Canaltech (Brazil): Ondas causadoras das auroras são demonstradas pela primeira vez
  76. Popular Mechanics (Russia): Как на самом деле возникают полярные сияния
  77. La Vanguardia (Spain): Demostración definitiva de cómo y por qué se forman las auroras polares
  78. Prensa Libre (Guatemala): Científicos revelan el misterioso origen de las auroras boreales
  79. Media INAF (Italy): All’origine delle aurore polari
  80. The Irish News (Northern Ireland): Physicists report evidence of how auroras are created
  81. Teknologi (Indonesia): Terkonfirmasi, Ternyata Ini Penyebab Aurora Terjadi
  82. Republika (Indonesia): Ilmuwan Pecahkan Misteri Terjadinya Aurora
  83. Klikbulukumba (Indonesia): UNTUK PERTAMA KALINYA, FISIKAWAN TELAH MENGKONFIRMASI GELOMBANG MISTERIUS YANG DISEBABKAN OLEH CAHAYA UTARA
  84. Haber 24 (Turkey): Kuzey Işıklarının Gizemli Kökeni Kanıtlandı
  85. TV9 Hindi (India): Northern Lights: आखिर कैसे बनती हैं ‘प्रकृति का अजूबा’ नॉर्दर्न लाइट्स? अमेरिकी वैज्ञानिकों ने अब राज से हटाया पर्दा
  86. El Palco (El Salvador): Se ha comprobado el misterioso origen de la aurora boreal
  87. Sport (Spain): Descubren cómo se crean las auroras que brillan en el cielo
  88. Sputnik News (Russia): Mystery of Shimmering Aurora 'Curtains of Light' Finally Solved
  89. AvtoJazz (Russia): Mystery of Shimmering Aurora ‘Curtains of Light’ Finally Solved
  90. Saudi 24 News (Saudi Arabia): For the first time, scientists have been able to provide definitive evidence of how the aurora borealis form
  91. greenMe (Italy): Rivelato finalmente come nascono le aurora boreali
  92. South Africa Today (South Africa): Mystery of Shimmering Aurora 'Curtains of Light' Finally Solved
  93. Pro Rally (Romania): S-a dovedit originea misterioasă a Luminilor Boreale
  94. Daily Maverick (South Africa): Wave-driven electrons prove the key to the celestial light show’s stunning signature
  95. Wirtualna Polska (Poland): Odkryli wielką tajemnicę. Naukowcy już wiedzą jak powstaje zorza polarna
  96. Naked Science (Russia): Эксперименты показали связь полярных сияний с волнами плазмы
  97. The Hindu (India): Best from science journals: Decoding northern lights
  98. Sina Finance (China): 天空中舞动的唯美极光，是地球上最令人叹为观止的景象之一。但多年以来，这种现象产生的原因并没有被完全理解。
  99. Guru Meditation (France): Des aurores boréales créées en laboratoire permettent de savoir plus précisément comment elles se forment
  100. Tom's Hardware (Italy): Come si forma un’Aurora Boreale in laboratorio?
  101. La Nacion (Argentina): Aurora boreal: científicos reproducen en un laboratorio su increíble origen
  102. Sputnik Turkiye (Turkey): Kuzey Işıkları'nın nasıl meydana geldiğine dair araştırmalarda bir ilk
  103. Tendencias (Spain): Descubren cómo se crean las auroras que brillan en el cielo
  104. Zing News (Vietnam): Nguồn gốc của các dải cực quang đầy màu sắc
  105. Offsite (Cyprus): Λύθηκε το μυστήριο για το φως που εκπέμπει το Βόρειο Σέλας
  106. East Africa News Post (Kenya): Scientists were able to prove the origin
  107. Super Interessante (Brazil): Cientistas confirmam o mecanismo por trás das auroras boreais pela primeira vez
  108. Salten News (Czech Republic): The mysterious origin of the northern lights has been proven
  109. New Zealand Online News (New Zealand): “Surfing” Particles on Alfvén Waves: Physicists Solve a Mystery Surrounding Aurora Borealis
  110. Tasmania Examiner (Australia) Aurora created in a lab

  Live Interviews, TV and Radio Stories:

  1. Wednesday 10 Jun 2021:Iowa's News Now, KGAN CBS2 and KFXA FOX28
  2. Thursday 10 Jun 2021: Breakfast with Robbie Buck & Wendy Harmer, ABC Radio, Sydney, Australia. Average audience of 350,000 Breakfast, Broadcast: Thu 10 Jun 2021, 6:00am
  3. KCBS (Los Angeles)
  4. Sunday 13 Jun 2021: KCBS All News Radio, 106.9 FM and 740 AM (San Francisco)

• 4/21/21: Professor Gregory Howes on local newscasts

  The local CBS (KGAN) and Fox (KFXA) affiliates ran a news segment on the threat of solar flares and geomagnetic storms to our power grid, featuring a number of quotes from Gregory Howes. A written story and the full 4 minute video segment that aired can be found at
  'Low probability, high impact' - Assessing solar threat to the power grid.
  

• 3/16/17: Graduate student Jim Schroeder's research highlighted in Physics Today

  Physics Today (print version, May 2017) ran a short news piece highlighting the work of graduate student Jim Schroeder,
  A step toward deciphering auroras.
  This news article covered Jim's experiment at the Large Plasma Device at UCLA to understand how Alfven waves accelerate electrons that lead to the glowing of the aurora. This work was performed in collaboration with several University of Iowa faculty members, including PI Gregory Howes and Co-Is Craig Kletzing and Fred Skiff.

• 10/25/16: Gregory Howes wins inaugural Ronald C. Davidson Award for Plasma Physics

  AIP Publishing has announced that Gregory Howes, an associate professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Iowa, is the winner of the inaugural 2016 Ronald C. Davidson Award for Plasma Physics. The award will be presented annually in collaboration with the American Physical Society (APS) Division of Plasma Physics, recognizing outstanding plasma physics research by a Physics of Plasmas author. Professor Howes' paper,
  A Weakened Cascade Model for Turbulence in Astrophysical Plasmas
  [Howes, G. G.,TenBarge, J. M., and Dorland, W. (2011), Phys. Plasmas 18:102305]
  was recognized the top paper published in the journal Physics of Plasmas over the period 2011-2015, from a total of 5,915 papers published in the journal during that period.

• 4/7/15: Professor Howes in the news

  Professor Howes interviewed on local news station KCRG and by UI News about the new season for the University of Iowa Mobile Museum. The Department of Physics and Astronomy created a new exhibit, "Hawkeyes in Space: Space Exploration at the University of Iowa," for the 2015 season. The exhibit highlights the UI Department of Physics and Astronomy's contributions to space exploration since the 1950s, highlighting three major events in that history: Explorer 1 in 1958, Voyager 1 in 1977, and the launch of the Van Allen probes in 2013. Hands on demonstrations enable kids to learn a little bit about the science of space.

  See the coverage:
  

  • University of Iowa News
  • Local KCRG News:

• 9/26/11: Obama names Gregory Howes as a 2010 PECASE Award Winner

  President Obama today named Gregory Howes as one of 94 researchers to receive the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers, the highest honor bestowed by the United States government on science and engineering professionals in the early stages of their independent research careers. Nominated for this award by NASA, Professor Howes was recognized for outstanding contributions to improve understanding of the dissipation of turbulence and the resulting heating of heliospheric plasmas, and for leadership in education and outreach activities. See the White House press release , the NASA press release, and the University of Iowa press release for more information.

• 7/14/11: Physical Review Letters paper published

  Our numerical study of the solar wind dissipation range, entitled "Gyrokinetic Simulations of Solar Wind Turbulence from Ion to Electron Scales," has just been published in Physical Review Letters. Using AstroGK to perform simulations of the entire dissipation range from the ion to the electron Larmor radius scales, we found: (1) a spectral index of the magnetic energy spectrum in remarkable agreement with recent observational studies, (2) turbulent fluctuations appear to retain the polarization properties of the linear kinetic Alfven wave mode, and (3) ion collisional heating peaks at high perpendicular wavenumber although ion collisional damping peak at lower perpendicularq wavenumber, providing the first strong evidence for the ion entropy cascade in an electromagnetic turbulence simulation.

• 6/1-3/11: Iowa High Performance Computing Summer School 2011

  Sixteen University of Iowa undergraduate and graduate students and postdocs took part in the third annual Iowa High Performance Computing (IHPC) Summer School. Funding by the National Science Foundation enabled the addition of three faculty members: Professor Bill Dorland from the University of Matryland, Professor Suely Oliveira from the Department of Computer Science at the University of Iowa, and Professor Christian Ott from the California Institute of Technology. Course materials were expanded to cover parallel programming using MPI, OpenMP, and CUDA for GPU computing, and students enjoyed hands on experience with the Moffett Si-Cortex supercomputer at the Rosen Center for Advanced Computing at Purdue University and the new Helium supercomputer at the University of Iowa.

• Spring 2011: Helium Supercomputer

  Research Services of the Information Technology Services has just built the first supercomputer on the University of Iowa campus. This computer, funded through a collaboration of 12 indepedent faculty researchers (including myself) and the University of Iowa, is an important computational research tool for the contributing groups specifically and for the campus as a whole. University of Iowa. Press Citizen.

• 2/3/11: National Science Foundation CAREER Award

  My proposal to the National Science Foundation's CAREER (Faculty Early Career Award) Program, entitled "CAREER: Turbulent Dissipation and Plasma Heating in the Near-Earth Solar Wind," has been funded through the Division of Atmospheric and Geospace Sciences. This prestigious award provides five years of funding for the main thrust of my research program on kinetic turbulence in the solar wind, including theoretical, numerical, and observational approaches. See the University of Iowa press release for more information.

• 9/29/10: Professor Howes in the news

  Comments by Professor Gregory Howes appear in an article on Discovery News about the possibilty of harnessing solar wind power to meet the energy needs of all humanity. The online article may be accessed at this link.

Old News

• 9/20/10: Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society Letters Paper Accepted

  My paper, entitled "A prescription for the turbulent heating of astrophysical plasmas," has been accepted for publication in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society Letters. This paper used my cascade model for turbulence in weakly collisional plasmas to calculate the ratio of ion to electron heating due to the dissipation of Alfvenic turbulence in astrophysical plasmas. An outcome of this work is a sub-grid-scale model for turbulent heating of the plasma species in weakly collisional plasmas.

• 9/7/10: AstroGK Journal of Computational Physics Paper Accepted

  Our paper, entitled "AstroGK: The Astrophysical Gyrokinetics Code," has been accepted for publication in the Journal of Computational Physics. This paper represents the important algorithm description and validation of the AstroGK code to enable AstroGK to become a major simulation code for the space and astrophysical plasma community.

• 9/1/10: NSF Proposal Funded

  My proposal to the NSF/DOE Partnership in Basic Plasma Science and Engineering Program , entitled "Basic Laboratory Experiments of Plasma Turbulence: Alfven Wave Collisions," has been funded for the period 9/1/2010 to 8/31/2013. The proposed investigation aims to to improve our understanding of the fundamental building blocks of plasma turbulence by performing laboratory experiments on the Large Plasma Device (LAPD) at UCLA to measure the nonlinear evolution of Alfven wave collisions. Comparison to nonlinear gyrokinetic simulation results using AstroGK plays a key role in the proposed work. This project involves collaboration between plasma theorists and experimentalists and space plasma experimentalists from the University of Iowa and plasma expiermentalists from UCLA.

• 7/9/10: Iowa High Performance Computing (IHPC) Summer School in the news

  The second-annual Iowa High Performance Computing (IHPC) Summer School, envisioned, organized, and taught by Professor Gregory Howes on May 25-26, 2010, was profiled in an online article by the Information Technology department at Purdue University. The online article may be accessed at this link.

• 6/8/10: NSF TeraGrid Award of 7.36M hours

  My proposal to the National Science Foundations TeraGrid project has been awarded 7.36M hours for the period 7/1/2010-6/30/2011 on Kraken at the National Institute for Computational Sciences at the University of Tennessee. Kraken is a Cray XT5 with 99,072 computing cores, boasting a peak performance of 1.03 petaflops which places it as the #4 supercomputer in the world. The goal of this project is to employ gyrokinetic theory, an elegant and efficient theoretical framework, in conjunction with today's most advanced supercomputing resources, to investigate the dissipation of turbulence in astrophysical plasmas and determine the resulting plasma heating, a key problem of fundamental importance in space physics and astrophysics.

• 5/26/10: Second Annual Iowa High Performance Computing (IHPC) Summer School

  The second-annual Iowa High Performance Computing (IHPC) Summer School was taught by Professor Gregory Howes on May 25-26, 2010 in the University Capitol Center. The program was held in a computer laboratory provided by the Information Technology Services of the University of Iowa, enabling hands-on instruction both on local research computing clusters at the University of Iowa and on remote supercomputing facilities. The goal of the IHPC is to provide hands-on, science-driven training of graduate students in the design of parallel algorithms and in the practical skills required for the successful execution of a high performance computing research program. The lectures and exercises covered a wide range of topics, including parallel computing models, design of parallel algorithms, parallelization using the Message Passing Interface (MPI) and OpenMP libraries, parallel debugging tools, profiling and performance evaluations, optimization, scientific validation and benchmarking, and analysis and visualization.

  The 2010 IHPC Summer School taught 16 University of Iowa graduate students from 14 different departments across the university: biochemistry, biomedical engineering, chemistry, chemical and biochemical engineering, economics, electrical and computer engineering, geography, hydroscience and engineering, industrial engineering, Institute for Clinical and Translational Science, management sciences, mechanical engineering, physics and astronomy, and statistics and actuarial science. The students really jumped into the hands-on programming assignments, learning to write, debug, and run parallel code on both a local 64-core linux cluster and a 4536-core SiCortex machine at Purdue University. Course evaluations came back very high for this pilot program, with an overall rating of 5.45/6.00; students also gave a 5.90/6.00 on the question of whether they would recommend this course to others. Course materials are posted online. One student provided nearly immediate feedback, happy to report "I have already managed to parallelize a particle advection code (without collisions), within 24 hours of taking your course. The course offered much insight on not just computing, but aided my understanding of utilizing University resources. I hope this is something that will continue to benefit many students in the future."

• 4/1/10: Award of 2.15M hours on NASA's Pleiades Supercomputer

  In support of my NASA funded proposal "The Dynamics of the Dissipation Range in Solar Wind Turbulence," I have been awarded 2.15M hours on NASA's Pleiades supercomputer by the NASA Advanced Supercomputing Division. Pleiades is currently the #6 supercomputer in the world, an SGI Altix ICE 8200EX/8400EX with 81920 computing cores boasting a peak performance of 0.973 petaflops. The aim of this computaitonal work is to test a newly constructed suite of observational measures aimed at distinguishing the characteristic wave modes underlying the fluctuations in the dissipation range of solar wind turbulence.

• 1/15/10: GK-LAPD Physics of Plasmas Paper Accepted

  Our paper entitled "Numerical Modeling of LAPD Alfven Wave Experiments using AstroGK," with my graduate student Kevin Nielson as first author, has been accepted for publication in Physics of Plasmas. This paper presents a comparison of linear simulation results using the astrophysical gyrokinetics code, AstroGK, to the measured linear properties of kinetic and inertial Alfven waves in the Large Plasma Device (LAPD) plasma. Results demonstrate that: (1) finite frequency effects due to the ion cyclotron resonance do not prevent satisfactory modeling of the LAPD plasma using gyrokinetic theory; and (2) an advanced collision operator, recently implemented in AstroGK, enables the code to successfully reproduce the collisionally enhanced damping rates of linear waves measured in recent LAPD experiments. These tests justify the use of AstroGK in the modeling of LAPD Alfven wave experiments and suggest that AstroGK will be a valuable tool in modeling the nonlinear evolution of proposed Alfven wave collision experiments.

• 11/30/09: 2010 INCITE Supercomputing Award

  An allocation of 12M hours for 2010 has been awarded to my proposal to the highly competitive Department of Energy Innovative and Novel Computational Impact on Theory and Experiment (INCITE) program, entitled "Turbulent Heating of Astrophysical Plasmas." The project will eventually be granted 40M hours over the full three year period. This substantial computing allocation has been granted on the #1 supercomputer in the world, Jaguar at the National Center for Computational Sciences at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory. Jaguar is a Cray XT5 system with 224,162 computing cores boasting a peak performance of 2.33 petaflops. The goal of this computational project using AstroGK is to investigate the dissipation of turbulence in astrophysical plasmas and determine the resulting plasma heating, a key problem of fundamental importance in space physics and astrophysics.

• 10/21/09: Magnetic Helicity ApJL Accepted

  Our paper, entitled "On the Interpretation of Magnetic Helicity Signatures in the Dissipation Range of Solar Wind Turbulence," has been accepted for publication in Astrophysical Journal Letters. This paper demonstrates that the observed magnetic helicity signature in the of the solar wind is consistent with a dissipation range consisting of kinetic Alfven waves and does not necessarily imply the importance of ion cyclotron damping.

• 10/21/09: Solar Wind Temperature Anisotropy PRL Accepted

  Our paper, entitled "Magnetic fluctuation power near proton temperature anisotropy instability thresholds in the solar wind," has been accepted for publication in Physical Review Letters. Using in situ satellite measurements, this papers shows that magnetic fluctuations in the solar wind are enhanced along the temperature anisotropy thresholds of the mirror, proton oblique firehose, and ion cyclotron instabilities.

• 9/1/09: JGR Paper on Ionopause at Mars Accepted

  Our paper, entitled "Steep, Transient Density Gradients in the Martian Ionopshere Similar to the Ionopause at Venus," has been accepted for publication in the Journal of Geophysical Research. This paper uses Mars Advanced Radar for Subsurface and Ionospheric Sounding (MARSIS) data from the Mars Express spacecraft to explore the nature of the Martian ionopause, the boundary separating the ionosphere of Mars for the shocked interplanetary solar wind.

• 8/10/09: ApJ Paper on Imbalanced Turbulence Published

  Our paper The Turbulent Heating Rate in Strong MHD Turbulence with Nonzero Cross Helicity has been published in the Astrophysical Journal. This paper discusses the conditions under which different conclusions about the nature of imbalanced turbulence are valid.

• 8/3/09: NASA Proposal Funded

  My proposal to the NASA Solar and Heliospheric Physics Program , entitled "The Dynamics of the Dissipation Range in Solar Wind Turbulence," has been funded for the period 1/1/2010 to 12/31/2012. The proposed investigation aims to use linear Vlasov-Maxwell kinetic theory to construct a suite of observational measures aimed at distinguishing the characteristic wave modes underlying the turbulence in the dissipation range, and employs nonlinear gyrokinetic simulations as a means of testing these measures.

• 6/30/09: Entropy Cascade PRL Published

  A key paper by our collaboration on the numerical demonstration of the entropy cascade, entitled Nonlinear phase mixing and phase-space cascade of entropy in gyrokinetic plasma turbulence, has been published in Physical Review Letters. This paper presents a numerical investigation of electrostatic turbulence in weakly collisional, magnetized plasma, which can be interpreted as a cascade of entropy in phase space, proposed as a universal mechanism for dissipation of energy in magnetized plasma turbulence.

• 6/4/09: NSF TeraGrid Award of 6,000,000 cpu-hours

  My proposal to the National Science Foundations TeraGrid project, entitled "Kinetic Dissipation of Astrophysical Plasma Turbulence," has been awarded 6,000,000 cpu-hours for the period 7/1/2009-6/30/2010 on Kraken at the National Institute for Computational Sciences at the University of Tennessee. Kraken is a Cray XT5 with 99,072 computing cores, boasting a peak performance of 1.03 petaflops which places it in the top five computers in the world. The goal of this project is to employ gyrokinetic theory, an elegant and efficient theoretical framework, in conjunction with today's most advanced supercomputing resources, to investigate the dissipation of turbulence in astrophysical plasmas and determine the resulting plasma heating, a key problem of fundamental importance in space physics and astrophysics.

• 3/30/09: MPSFP Proposal Funded

  My proposal to the Math & Physical Sciences Funding Program, entitled "Calibrated Numerical Guidance for Basic Plasma Turbulence Experiments," has been funded by the Office of the Vice President for Research at the University of Iowa. Funding will support research on gyrokinetic simulations in support of basic plasma turbulence experiments on the Large Plasma Device (LAPD) at UCLA.

• 3/27/09: Nonlin. Processes in Geophys. Accepted

  My paper, Limitations of Hall MHD as a model for turbulence in weakly collisional plasmas, has been published in Nonlinear Processes in Geophysics.

• 2/11/09: Jason TenBarge has accepted postdoc

  Jason TenBarge, who will be graduating from the University of Texas at Austin this summer, has accepted the offer of a postdoctoral research position in computational, space, and astrophysical plasma physics in our group at the University of Iowa. He will arrive in Iowa City in late August 2009.

• 10/1/08: Reply Comment in PRL Published

  Our Reply to a Comment by Mattaheus, Servidio, and Dmitruk on our Physical Review Letter Kinetic Simulations of Magnetized Turbulence in Astrophysical Plasmas was published today. Here we respond to their criticisms of our numerical work on kinetic turbulence and point out that a fluid model alone, such as Hall MHD, is not sufficient to describe turbulence in a kinetic plasma such as the solar wind.

• 8/25/08: Begin of Semester at University of Iowa

  The Fall 2008 semester at the University of Iowa has begun. As a new Assistant Professor, I am teaching graduate level Plasma Physics this year, and working on establishing my research program at Iowa, focusing on high-performance computational studies of kinetic plasma turbulence in space and astrophysical plasmas.

• 5/23/08: JGR Published!

  Our recent submission to Journal of Geophysical Research-Space Physics, A Model of Turbulence in Magnetized Plasmas: Implications for the Dissipation Range in the Solar Wind, appears in the May 23, 2008 issue.

• 4/14/08: Faculty Position at University of Iowa

  I have accepted a Plasma Theory faculty position in the Department of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Iowa . I am currently gearing up to establish my research program there and will begin teaching their graduate plasma physics courses this coming Fall semsester in August. The University of Iowa is a research university with a top ten plasma physics program and, as the home of James Van Allen, has a long and storied history of ground-breaking space physics research.

• 3/11/08: PoP Published Online!

  My recent submission to Physics of Plasmas, Inertial range turbulence in kinetic plasmas, has just been published online.

• 2/15/08: PRL Published!

  Our recent submission to Physical Review Letters, Kinetic Simulations of Magnetized Turbulence in Astrophysical Plasmas, appears in the February 15, 2008 issue.

• 2/7/08: PoP Accepted!

  My recent submission to Physics of Plasmas, Inertial range turbulence in kinetic plasmas, has been accepted. It will appear in the May Special Issue from the APS Division of Plasma Physics Meeting.

• 1/25/08: University of Iowa Shortlist

  I have been selected for the shortlist for a tenure-track faculty position in theoretical plasma physics in the Department of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Iowa. My interview dates are March 6-7, 2008.

• 1/23/08: University of New Hampshire Shortlist

  I have been selected for the shortlist for a tenure-track faculty position in Department of Physics at the University of New hampshire. This position is supported by the newly established Center for Integrated Computation and Analysis of Reconnection and Turbulence (CICART) and will be affiliated with the Integrated Applied Mathematics (IAM) Program to be inaugurated in Fall 2008. My interview dates are February 21-22, 2008.

• 1/17/08: INCITE Award of 4,000,000 cpu-hours

  Along with my colleague Bill Dorland (U. Maryland), I have been awarded a 4,000,000 cpu-hour supercomputer allocation through the INCITE (Innovative and Novel Computational Impact on Theory and Experiment) competition from the Office of Science in the US Department of Energy. Our project, Fluctuation Spectra and Anomalous Heating in Magnetized Plasma Turbulence, will use Jaguar, a Cray XT3/4 system at the National Center for Computational Sciences at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. Read the 2008 INCITE Award press release from the DOE.

• 1/3/08: JGR Accepted!

  Our recent submission to Journal of Geophysical Research-Space Physics, A Model of Turbulence in Magnetized Plasmas: Implications for the Dissipation Range in the Solar Wind, has been accepted. Look for it soon!

• 12/28/07: PRL Accepted!

  Our recent submission to Physical Review Letters, Kinetic Simulations of Magnetized Turbulence in Astrophysical Plasmas, has been accepted. Look for it in the upcoming February 15, 2008 issue.

• 9/19/07: AstroGK ported to Franklin

  AstroGK has been successfully ported to Franklin, the new 19,320 processor Cray XT4 at NERSC.