Research on Planetary and Exo-planetary Lightning

Thesis advisors: Prof. Carynelisa Haspel (Hebrew University of Jerusalem) , Prof. Yoav Yair (Reichman University)

Thunderstorms had been detected in the atmospheres of several planets in the solar system (positively on Jupiter and Saturn, likely on Uranus and Neptune), and they are a consequence of physical processes in the clouds residing in those planets' atmospheres. Lightning is often accompanied by transient luminous events (TLEs', also known as sprites and elves) which shine brightly for brief periods of time. There are observations of TLEs on Earth from ground, airborne and space platforms, and they have been recently detected for the first time in Jupiter's atmosphere (by the Juno spacecraft).

The present research deals with theoretical models for the physical processes in the atmospheres of planets in our solar system and beyond (in newly discovered exo-planets). It is funded by the Israeli Science Foundation (ISF) and grants a full master's scholarship for a period of 2 years, starting in fall 2024.

We are looking for gifted, curious, and motivated students that have a degree in physics, geophysics, atmospheric science, or Earth sciences. Programming skills in MATLAB and Python are an asset.

Send applications to:  yoav.yair@runi.ac.il and carynelisa.haspel@mail.huji.ac.il

 

Admission information at: https://info.huji.ac.il/master/Atmospheric-Sciences