Solar wind Magnetosphere Ionosphere Link Explorer (SMILE) is a mission that will revolutionise our understanding of the solar-terrestrial relationship, including the dynamic processes that control phenomena such as the aurora borealis (Norther/Southern Lights).
In this fascinating talk Dr Jennifer Carter (Leicester University) will explain how the mission was born from a problem for X-ray astronomers, and how we are preparing for the mission.
We will explore some of the big questions in magnetosphere-ionosphere coupling that SMILE will attempt to answer.
SMILE will launch late in 2025 (ESA launch date TBC) to study Earth’s magnetic environment – its magnetosphere – and help to build a more complete understanding of the Sun-Earth connection.
The first major collaborative science mission between the European Space Agency (ESA) and the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) and will use a Soft X-ray Imager (SXI) Instrument developed at Space Park Leicester by University of Leicester scientists and engineers.
It will improve our understanding of space weather and solar storms, essential to help protect space-based technology and humans in orbit around the Earth.
Talks in Person
This walk will be held at the Washington Wetlands Centre (Discovery Room).
The talk will also be broadcast via MS Teams (providing no technical and/or WIFI difficulties)
Please show you support to our speaker and the Society in person if you can be there on the lecture night.
Hopefully we see you all at the Wetlands Centre (Discovery Room) , Raffle & Refreshments as usual.
When Where Who
- Date: Sunday 15th June 2025,
- Time: 7 pm.
- Speaker: Dr Jennifer Carter School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Leicester, .
- Venue: At the Washington Wetlands Centre (Discovery Room ) and Via Teams (Video Streaming Link, technology permitting).
Our speaker
- Dr Jennifer Carter School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Leicester, .
- Jenny is a Royal Society Dorothy Hodgkin fellow in the Planetary Sciences group in the School of Physics and Astronomy University of Leicester.
- Prior to Leicester Jenny studied at University of Bristol for a MSci in Physics with Astrophysics.
- Worked as a research scientist in the optics group at the National Physical Laboratory, and then at the European Space Agency’s European Space Astronomy Centre, Madrid, Spain, as a Young Graduate Trainee.
- Her astronomy career started as part of a team supporting the XMM-Newton mission and my thesis explored X-ray emission from the Earth’s exosphere.
Research
- Jenny’s research considers dayside interactions of the Earth’s magnetic field with the solar wind and how this couples with the ionosphere. This interaction manifests itself in many ways including via auroral features such as arcs and through field aligned currents.
- Jenny is heavily involved in the upcoming European Space Agency Chinese Academy of Sciences Solar wind Ionosphere Link Explorer (SMILE) mission.
- In particular I lead efforts to combine SMILE data sets with those from other facilities and experiments.
- She also use space and ground facilities such as SuperDARN to monitor convection in the ionosphere. I investigate solar wind composition via novel uses of the XMM-Newton observatory. XMM-Newton can also be used to extract knowledge of the Earth’s exospheric hydrogen density distribution and also variations using these observations. I am currently funded by the Royal Society as a Dorothy Hodgkin Research Fellow.
Talks at the Wetlands and via Teams
Talks at Wetlands Centre
The SAS is planning to run this lecture from the our base of operations Washington Wetlands Centre (in the usual Discovery Room) and via Teams (Access details TBC).
Suitable hand sanitisers will be located in the room and at the our observatory.
