I started my scientific career by obtaining a Bachelor's degree in general physics, but quite quickly decided to specialise in space physics afterwards - intrigued not only by the mysteries of starry night skies and dancing northern lights, but also the advanced satellite technology required to investigate these phenomena. The solar system is pretty vast and quite unexplored, offering near endless possibilities for interesting research to close the massive gaps in humankind's understanding of the world that surrounds them, and I found the investigation of the planets' magnetospheres to be an ever-interesting endeavour.
Over time I have lead and contributed to research into the plasma environments and auroral processes observed at Saturn, Venus, and Jupiter - finding some answers to various scientific questions, but uncovering even more questions than I could answer. You can find a short selection of my contributions below; feel free to contact me if you see value in a collaboration or just want to discuss!
Saturn's energetic neutral atom emission
Processing and averaging all energetic neutral atom (ENA) observations obtained by Cassini throughout its roughly 15-year long mission at Saturn was a lot of work, but yielded these clean views showing the mean extent of the ENA emission which can be used to inform magnetospheric modelling. As a byproduct, the cleaned and projected dataset has been made available for further studies so our efforts won't have to be repeated.
More details can be found at DOI:10.1029/2020GL091595.
Cassini's only (?) pass near the auroral acceleration region
Near the end of Cassini's Saturn tour the spacecraft performed a series of orbits passing near the auroral acceleration region. These allowed us to get a glimpse of ion beams/conics and wave activity, helping us loosely infer some details about the auroral plasma environment. My sketch summarizing the findings made the journal cover page!
More details can be found at DOI:10.1029/2019JA027403.
Today's most complete understanding of Saturn's aurorae
Much of the Saturn auroral imagery collected by the Cassini spacecraft was not given any attention for years due to its very low spatial resolution. This study was the first to analyse it, exploiting the fine temporal resolution and long time ranges covered to reveal the previously unknown variability and solar wind dependence of the auroral emission - disenchanting many earlier studies that had wrongly assumed the aurorae to be rather static and more similar to Jupiter's than they actually are. The resulting research letter presents a concise summary of all known auroral drivers at Saturn and their interactions.
More details can be found at DOI:10.1029/2019GL084620.
Proton temperature anisotropies around Venus
After the conclusion of ESA's Venus Express mission, statistical analyses of all proton velocity distributions that were collected showed temperature anisotropies in the same regions that exhibit mirror mode wave activity. This study instigated various others investigating wave-particle interactions at Venus and drawing comparisons to similar processes at Earth.
More details can be found at DOI:10.1029/2019JA026619.
Periodic flashing in Saturn's aurora
First observation and investigation of periodic flashing in Saturn's aurora, which seems to occur pretty frequently and always with a roughly with a 1-hour periodicity. We could observe these flashes in imagery from the Cassini spacecraft and the Hubble Space Telescope, and relate them to equally periodic deflections of the magnetic field linked to the auroral features. There are some ideas floating around as to what causes this, but no distinct generation process could be identified so far.
More details can be found at DOI:10.1029/2018JA026320.
Research Articles
G. Stenberg Wieser, M. Andre, H. Nilsson, N. Edberg, M. Persson, S. Rojas Mata, M. Mihalikova, H. Gunell, A. Bader, Y. Futaana, "Estimating the Possible Ion Heating Caused by Alfven Waves at Venus", Journal of Geophysical Research: Space Physics, 129(12), e2024JA032865, DOI:10.1029/2024JA032865 (2024).
Y. Xu, Z. H. Yao, S.-Y. Ye, S. V. Badman, K. Dialynas, N. Sergis, L. C. Ray, R. L. Guo, D. X. Pan, W. R. Dunn, B. Zhang, A. Bader, J. Kinrade, S. Y. Wu, A. J. Coates, D. G. Mitchell, and Y. Wei, "A Possible Unified Picture for the Connected Recurrent Magnetic Dipolarization, Quasi-Periodic ENA Enhancement, SKR Low-Frequency Extension and Narrowband Emission at Saturn", Journal of Geophysical Research: Space Physics, 128(9), e2023JA031445, DOI:10.1029/2023JA031445 (2023).
T. Quin, S. V. Badman, J. Kinrade, A. Bader, "Transient Flashes in Saturn's UV Aurora: An Analysis of Hubble Space Telescope 2013-2017 Campaigns and Cassini Magnetic Field Measurements", Universe, 8(11), 602, DOI:10.3390/universe8110602 (2022).
S. Rojas Mata, G. Stenberg Wieser, Y. Futaana, A. Bader, M. Persson, A. Fedorov, T. L. Zhang, "Proton Temperature Anisotropies in the Venus Plasma Environment During Solar Minimum and Maximum", Journal of Geophysical Research: Space Physics, 127(1), e2021JA029611, DOI:10.1029/2021JA029611 (2022).
J. Kinrade, A. Bader, S. V. Badman, C. Paranicas, D. G. Mitchell, D. Constable, C. S. Arridge, S. W. H. Cowley, G. Provan, "The Statistical Morphology of Saturn's Equatorial Energetic Neutral Atom Emission", Geophysical Research Letters, 48(11), e2020GL091595, DOI:10.1029/2020GL091595 (2021).
A. Bader, J. Kinrade, S. V. Badman, C. Paranicas, D. A. Constable, D. G. Mitchell, "A Complete Data Set of Equatorial Projections of Saturn's Energetic Neutral Atom Emissions Observed by Cassini-INCA", Journal of Geophysical Research: Space Physics, 126(6), e2020JA028908, DOI:10.1029/2020JA028908 (2021).
C. Paranicas, M. F. Thomsen, P. Kollmann, A. R. Azari, A. Bader, S. V. Badman, M. Dumont, J. Kinrade, N. Krupp, E. Roussos, "Inflow Speed Analysis of Interchange Injections in Saturn's Magnetosphere", Journal of Geophysical Research: Space Physics, 125(9), e2020JA028299, DOI:10.1029/2020JA028299 (2020).
A. Bader, S. W. H. Cowley, S. V. Badman, L. C. Ray, J. Kinrade, B. Palmaerts, W. R. Pryor, "The morphology of Saturn's aurorae observed during the Cassini Grand Finale", Geophysical Research Letters, 47(2), e2019GL085800, DOI:10.1029/2019GL085800 (2020).
C. T. S. Lorch, L. C. Ray, C. S. Arridge, K. K. Khurana, C. J. Martin, A. Bader, "Local time asymmetries in Jupiter's magnetodisc currents", Journal of Geophysical Research: Space Physics, 125(2), e2019JA027455, DOI:10.1029/2019JA027455 (2020).
J. Kinrade, S. V. Badman, C. Paranicas, D. G. Mitchell, C. S. Arridge, R. L. Gray, A. Bader, G. Provan, S. W. H. Cowley, C. J. Martin, N. Achilleos, "Tracking counterpart signatures in Saturn's auroras and ENA imagery during large-scale plasma injection events", Journal of Geophysical Research: Space Physics, 125(2), e2019JA027542, DOI:10.1029/2019JA027542 (2020).
A. Bader, S. V. Badman, L. C. Ray, C. P. Paranicas, C. T. S. Lorch, G. Clark, M. André, D. G. Mitchell, D. A. Constable, J. Kinrade, G. J. Hunt, W. Pryor, "Energetic particle signatures above Saturn's aurorae", Journal of Geophysical Research: Space Physics, 125(1), e2019JA027403, DOI:10.1029/2019JA027403 (2020).
J. M. Jasinski, C. S. Arridge, A. Bader, A. W. Smith, M. Felici, J. Kinrade, A. J. Coates, G. H. Jones, T. A. Nordheim, L. Gilbert, A. R. Azari, S. V. Badman, G. Provan, N. Sergis, N. Murphy, "Saturn's open-closed field line boundary: a Cassini electron survey at Saturn's magnetosphere", Journal of Geophysical Research: Space Physics, 124(12), 10018-10035, DOI:10.1029/2019JA027090 (2019).
A. Bader, S. V. Badman, S. W. H. Cowley, Z. H. Yao, L. C. Ray, J. Kinrade, E. J. Bunce, G. Provan, T. J. Bradley, C. Tao, G. J. Hunt, W. R. Pryor, "The dynamics of Saturn's main aurorae", Geophysical Research Letters, 46(17-18), 10283-10294, DOI:10.1029/2019GL084620 (2019).
A. Bader, G. Stenberg Wieser, M. Andre;, M. Wieser, Y. Futaana , M. Persson , H. Nilsson, T. L. Zhang, "Proton temperature anisotropies in the plasma environment of Venus", Journal of Geophysical Research: Space Physics, 124(5), 3312-3330, DOI:10.1029/2019JA026619 (2019).
A. Bader, S. V. Badman, Z. H. Yao, J. Kinrade, W. R. Pryor, "Observations of continuous quasiperiodic auroral pulsations on Saturn in high time-resolution UV auroral imagery", Journal of Geophysical Research: Space Physics, 124(4), 2451-2465, DOI:10.1029/2018JA026320 (2019).
A. Bader, S. V. Badman, J. Kinrade, S. W. H. Cowley, G. Provan, W. R. Pryor, "Modulations of Saturn's UV auroral oval location by planetary period oscillations", Journal of Geophysical Research: Space Physics, 124(2), 952-970, DOI:10.1029/2018JA026117 (2019).
A. Bader, S. V. Badman, J. Kinrade, S. W. H. Cowley, G. Provan, W. R. Pryor, "Statistical planetary period oscillation signatures in Saturn's UV auroral intensity", Journal of Geophysical Research: Space Physics, 123(10), 8459-8472, DOI:10.1029/2018JA025855 (2018).
J. Kinrade, S. V. Badman, G. Provan, S. W. H. Cowley, L. Lamy, A. Bader, "Saturn's Northern Auroras and Their Modulation by Rotating Current Systems During Late Northern Spring in Early 2014", Journal of Geophysical Research: Space Physics, 123(8), 6289-6306, DOI:10.1029/2018JA025426 (2018).