Mathew Owens: Personal webpage

I am a Professor of Space Physics in the Department of Meteorology. I am currently the Programme Director for the new Environmental Physics BSc.

Links to a publication list, CV and research interests can be found in the left-hand panel.

Recent news

• Jun 2017: My article on the coherence of CMEs has been published. IFLScience provided a good write up.
• Feb 2017: Kim Tucker-Hood, my PhD student co-supervised with Prof. Chris Scott, has passed her viva, subject to minor thesis corrections. Huge congratulations to Kim!
• Jan 2017: My article on reconstructing the solar wind over the last four centuries has been published. There's a nice write up on IFLScience.
• Jun 2016: The Guardian have a nice summary of my recent work on thunder day observations.
• Mar 2016: I'm now an Associate Editor for Solar Physics, specialising in heliospheric science.
• Mar 2016: My former PhD student, Simon Thomas, has won the Department of Meteorology's Ian James thesis prize. Read it here.
• Jan 2016: The American Geophysical Union have a EOS spotlight article on my recent solar wind-lightning research
• Mar 2015: Simon Thomas successfully defended his PhD thesis, "On the heliospheric modulation of galactic cosmic rays."
• Nov 2014: My recent article on Lightning and the solar magnetic field has picked up a lot of media attention. e.g., BBC, Mail, Independent, Guardian, Scientific American. There is a particularly informative write up at Environmental Research Web

Research Interests:

• The heliospheric magnetic field
• The source of the slow solar wind
• Empirical and numerical space-weather forecasting
• Reconstructions of long-term solar variability
More information can be found here. A list of publications is available here.

Research Projects:

• Space Weather Impact on Ground-based Systems (NERC funded)
• Driving Space Weather forecasts with real data (NERC funded): Can determining background solar wind conditions by using data from the NASA STEREO spacecraft improve the accuracy of space weather forecast models?
• The heliosphere and space weather under space-climate change (STFC funded)
• Geomagnetic, sunspot and cosmogenic nuclide reconstructions of the solar magnetic field (Leverhulme funded)

Postdoctoral & graduate student supervision

• Dr Luke Barnard Working on solar wind model initiation using heliospheric imager data and space climate reconstructions.
• Sarah Bentley Working on solar wind driving of magnetospheric wave power and its effects on the radiation belts. Co-supervised with Dr Clare Watt.