Dr. Strangeway's primary research field is in the area of space plasma physics. Within that area he has made

Dr. Robet J. Strangeway

significant contributions to a broad variety of topics encompassing both data analysis and theory, and several different planets. He has worked on radio emissions from Venus and the evidence of lightning, electromagnetic waves generated within the Io plasma torus, ion transport within the terrestrial magnetosphere, generation mechanisms for auroral kilometric radiation, and most recently the role of field-aligned currents in magnetosphere-ionosphere coupling and masss outlfows.

In addition to his research efforts, Dr. Strangeway is also building the next generation of space physics instrumentation. He is the Principal Investigator on an effort to supply small mass, power, and volume magnetometers that will be flown on the Space Technology 5 technology demonstration project, which is part of NASA's New Millenium Program. These magnetometers are the precursor to magnetometers that will be flown on missions such as Magnetospheric Constellation, consisting of up to 100 spacecraft flying throughout the Earth's magnetosphere. Such a mission requires that we be able to build hundreds of magnetometers quickly, reliably, and cheaply. Dr. Strangeway's effort for the ST5 ensures that IGPP/UCLA will be ideally positioned to provide these magnetometers, thereby retaining the lead in magnetospheric physics research that has been established over the years by the faculty, students, and research staff of IGPP.

Dr. Strangeway's lecture discusses the importance of Maxwell stress in understanding the dynamics of a coupled system such as the Earth's magnetosphere and ionosphere. He shows the relationship between Maxwell stress, the Lorentz force, and dissipation of Poynting flux. This view of magnetospheric dynamics emphasizes the importance of magnetic fields, which leads us into a discussion on space-flight qualified magnetometers, future plans for magnetospheric missions, and the role that UCLA will have in providing magnetometers for thse missions.

Lecture: 4:00 PM
Location: 3853 Slichter Hall
(Light refreshments will precede the lecture)