Group members

Academic staff
Professor Giles Harrison
Giles Harrison is professor of atmospheric physics. His research interests span atmospheric electricity, eclipse meteorology, volcanic plume electrification, solar-terrestrial relationships and novel weather measurements.
Professor Mike Lockwood
Prof. Lockwood has wide-ranging interests in solar-terrestrial physics from the solar corona to the upper atmosphere and in solar influences on global and regional climates. Currently working in constructing a space weather climatology that extends back over the past 400 year using models and analysis of space-age data.
Professor Chris Scott
Chris Scott studies the impact of the Sun and Solar wind on the Earth and its atmosphere. Research topics include; improving space-weather forecasting, the ionospheric enhancement in response to lightning; solar wind influence on lightning rates and long-term changes in the ionosphere. He has also been investigating the response of the ionosphere to solar eclipses.
Professor Mathew Owens
Mathew Owens is Professor of Space Physics. He is primarily interested in the solar wind and its space weather impact.
Research staff
Dr Keri Nicoll
Dr Keri Nicoll is a NERC Independent Research Fellow investigating the effect of energetic particles on atmospheric processes. Her wide range of research areas include atmospheric electricity, ionisation and aerosol charging processes, instrument development, and airborne measurements from balloons and unmanned aircraft.
Dr Martin Airey
Dr. Martin Airey is a postdoctoral researcher performing experimental research into electrical effects on the clouds of Earth and Venus. He also develops instrumentation for deployment in atmospheric and volcanological research. Dr. Airey has a background in Earth and Planetary Sciences and holds a DPhil in Earth Sciences (Oxford), an MRes in Science of the Environment (Lancaster), and a BSc in Geosciences (Open).
Dr Luke Barnard
Dr Luke Barnard is a postdoctoral researcher investigating aspects of space weather and space climate. He is interested what we can learn about coronal mass ejections and the solar wind from the Heliospheric Imager instruments, in particular using citizen science approaches. He is also interested in the long term variation in solar activity, and the methods that might be used to predict this.
PhD students
Lauren James
Lauren’s project is titled ‘Origin and evolution of detailed structure in coronal mass ejections’ and is supervised by Professor Chris Scott.
Anna Frost
Anna’s project is titled ‘Origins of the solar wind’ and is supervised by Professor Mathew Owens.
Harriet Turner
Harriet’s project is titled ‘Forecast improvements from solar wind data assimilation’ and is supervised by Professor Mathew Owens and Dr Matthew Lang.
Blair McGinness
Blair’s project is titled ‘Venus ionised droplet investigations’ and is supervised by Professor Giles Harrison.
Photo of Caleb Miller Caleb Miller
Caleb’s project is titled ‘Improvement of fog forecasting using atmospheric electricity’ and is supervised by Dr Keri Nicoll.