Dept of Meteorology - University of Reading

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Links to a (probably updated) publication list, (probably outdated) CV and (only slowly changing) research interests can be found in the left-hand panel.

Recent news

Oct 2020: The Journal of Space Weather and Space Climate has put together a 10-year retrospective, including a summary of our Little Ice Age paper.
Sep 2020: Our AGU Advances study on ensemble CME forecasting has been summarised in EOS news
Aug 2020: My review of The Solar Cycle for a non-specialist audience is available here.
Jun 2020: I recently wrote a short Commentary article about the value of CME arrival time predictions for space-weather forecasting. There's a write up here.
Oct 2019: I've added a data visualisation section to house some of the Warming Stripes animations I've been putting together.
Mar 2019: Weather Underground has reviewed the climate implications (or lack thereof) of reduced solar activity in the coming decade.
Oct 2018: The Independent and The Mail report on our recent work on data assimilation for the solar wind.
Jan 2018: The Guardian has done an excellent job of debunking the recent Little Ice Age stories, with reference to recent Reading work.

Dec 2017: Commentary on my recent solar wind forecasting work from The American Geophysical Union's EOS and the Space Weather journal.
Dec 2017: My article on the correspondence between the Little Ice Age and the Maunder minimum is Open Access here.
Nov 2017: Interested in doing a PhD in space weather? Apply here.
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
Apr 2014: I recently wrote a "Science Nugget" for UK Solar Physics.
Jan 2014: New Scientist wrote a short article on some work Mike Lockwood and I have been doing about the solar wind during the Maunder minimum.
Jan 2014: My review of the Heliospheric Magnetic Field is now available via Open Access from Living Reviews In Solar Physics.
Oct 2013: I have been awarded a Philip Leverhulme prize for outstanding achievement in Astronomy and Astrophysics
Jun 2013: The new Environmental Physics BSc will run for the first time in October 2014.
May 2013: I have been promoted to Associate Professor.
Jan 2012: I have been awarded the Royal Astronomical Society's Fowler Award for outstanding contribution to geophysics by an early career researcher.
Jan 2012: I am now associate editor for the AGU's Journal for Geophysical Research (Space).

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
Long-term trends in thunderstorm occurrence

Externally funded research projects:

Current: Solar wind forecasting from L5 (ESA funded)
Current: Solar wind data assimilation (NERC funded)
Current: Creation/destruction of heliospheric magnetic flux (STFC funded)
Current: Space Weather Impact on Ground-based Systems (NERC funded)
Finished: Driving Space Weather forecasts with real data (NERC funded)
Finished: The heliosphere and space weather under space-climate change (STFC funded)
Finished: Geomagnetic, sunspot and cosmogenic nuclide reconstructions of the solar magnetic field (Leverhulme funded)

Current postdoctoral & graduate student supervision

Dr Allan Macneil Analysing solar wind electron observations of the inner heliosphere.
Dr Luke Barnard Working on solar wind model initiation using heliospheric imager data and space climate reconstructions.
Dr Matthew Lang Developing data assimilation techniques for the solar wind.
Anna-Marie Neale. Studying solar wind formation through in situ observations.
Lauren James. Studying the evolution of coronal mass ejections in the heliospehre. Co-supervised with Prof Chris Scott
Shannon Jones Working on coronal mass ejections using Heliospheric Imager observations. Co-supervised with Prof Chris Scott
Austin Jones Studying the link between thunderstorm activity and the ionosphere. Co-supervised with Prof Chris Scott
Teo Bloch Applying machine learning to space physics problems. Co-supervised with Dr Clare Watt
Carl Haines Characterising geomagnetic disturbances. In conjunction with EDF Energy.

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Contact

Office:
2U03 Met
Email: Mathew Owens
Telephone:
+44 (0) 118 378 5282

See also