Research summary
Our interconnected societies increasingly depend on satellites for navigation, weather forecasting, environmental monitoring, television signals and more. What’s less known is that satellites are at risk—from radiation belts that arise from the dynamics of the high-energy particle environment that surrounds the Earth. These particles can also affect radio wave propagation in ways that challenge the reliability of GPS and interfere with radio communications, such as those used by transpolar aircraft.
As Canada Research Chair in Geospace Dynamics and Space Plasma Physics, Dr. Emma Spanswick is developing observational techniques that broaden the scope of the information available to us about the near-Earth space environment. She and her research team are using these techniques to study a range of space science problems and to advance applications for monitoring and predicting space weather.