Author: Markus Battarbee

During the first week of October, Friia from the South Botnia Waldorf / Steiner school visited our research group, to participate in a week of vocational traning and experiencing life as a space physicist!

Hello! I am Friia, 8th grade student from Etelä-Pohjanmaan Steiner-koulu, and I spent a wonderful week in the space physics team of University of Helsinki doing my work practice for this year. I’ve always been interested in space, and that’s why I got an idea to come here during my school’s work practice period.

I had to do some tasks during the week. For example I had to do classification about velocity distributions in the simulation EGI from some time point and name and classify those classes according to the shape of, and structures in their cross-sections. After that I made a poster about my analysis.

There are some of most interesting shapes that i noticed, and names that I gave to them:

“Pac-man”

Continue reading “My work practice in the UH space physics team”

Hello, I am Lynn an 8th grade student from the English school Helsinki and I am very interested in physics and mathematics. I had the opportunity to have a one week work practice program in the space physics research team at the university of Helsinki in spring of 2022.

During this week I spent my time mainly learning about colormaps and their usage. I was also experimenting with code and a simulation from the Vlasiator group while trying to figure out which colormap is the best for research. I also got to attend a couple of meetings and lectures. I was also able to present my results in the group meeting.

To find out which colormap was best I went through all available colormaps and then created two opinion polls for others to vote on.

Continue reading “An artistic take on science – vocational secondary school training with the Vlasiator team”

The UH Space Physics Group is recruiting summer trainees! We are offering several positions which will challenge and inspire new space scientists, with topics ranging from solar eruptions such as coronal mass ejections to the compilated plasma dynamics of near-Earth space. Most projects will use either the world’s most accurate space weather simulation Vlasiator or the leading european space weather simulation EUHFORIA, both developed by members of our groups. Some projects will also include direct analysis of satellite observation datasets. Experience with Python and basics of plasma physics are a plus, but not required. Most positions provide an excellent topic for BSc or MSc theses!

Continue reading “Recruiting summer trainees for 2022”

The UH Space Physics Group is recruiting summer trainees! Trainees will work with the space weather simulation Vlasiator and with projects investigating solar eruptions in the corona and interplanetary space. Both projects dealing with modelling and data analysis are possible. Experience with Python and basics of plasma physics are a plus, but not required. Most positions provide an excellent topic for BSc or MSc theses!

A short overview of some of our offered topics are listed below, full descriptions and staff members who can answer your questions can be found in our thesis section. Please indicate in your application which projects you are interested in and any preference between modelling, observations/data analysis or theory. Also, please indicate if you would like to do your BSc or MSc work based on your summer trainee work.

Continue reading “Recruiting summer trainees for 2021”

The Space Physics Group at the Department of Physics, University of Helsinki, is a leading European research group specialised in numerical modelling of space plasmas using high-performance computing. We develop Vlasiator, massively hybrid-parallelized simulation in order to investigate the near-Earth space. We are now looking to hire a GPU-programmer to join our team in a software engineer position.

Continue reading “Job opportunity: GPU-programmer for scientific computing”

The UH Space Physics Group is looking for several summer trainees! Summer trainees will work with space weather simulation Vlasiator and with the projects investigating solar eruptions in the corona and interplanetary space. Both projects dealing with modelling and data analysis are possible. Experience with Python and basics of plasma physics are a plus, but not required. Summer trainee positions offer an excellent chance also for BSc and MSc theses!

A short overview of some of our offered topics are listed below, full descriptions and staff members who can answer your questions can be found in our thesis section. You may indicate in your application what project/which projects you would in particular be interested in and whether you have any preference between modelling, observations/data analysis or theory. Also, please indicate if you would like to do your BSc or MSc work based on your summer trainee work.

Continue reading “Looking for summer trainees!”

During the first week of October, Werner Karjalainen from the secondary school Helsingin yhteislyseo visited the space research groups, learning what constitutes a weeks work for a space physicist. He wrote a report of his experiences – read it below!

Hi, I’m Werner Karjalainen from 9th grade, and I was one week at the University of Helsinki at work practice program in the fall of 2019. During my week in the Space Physics team at the University of Helsinki, I interviewed 6 researchers: Urs Ganse, Emilia Kilpua, Yann Pfau-Kempf, Lucile Turc, Diana Morosan and Adnan Osmane.

Continue reading “Visiting the Space Physics groups for vocational secondary school training”

The Space Physics Group at the University of Helsinki, Department of Physics, is a leading research group specialised both in observations and modelling of space plasmas. We develop the unique global hybrid-Vlasov simulation Vlasiator to investigate the near-Earth space in ion kinetic scales utilising hybrid-Vlasov methods.

We are now opening several postdoctoral fellow positions funded through a European Research Council Consolidator grant, and the Academy of Finland. The positions are focussed on both developing Vlasiator as well as utilising it in investigating kinetic plasma processes (magnetic reconnection and shocks), and coupling with the ionosphere; both from electron and ion perspectives. The applicant should have a PhD in space physics or other relevant field. Other useful skills include: using/developing numerical simulations, Python, C++, data analysis, supercomputer environments.

Continue reading “JOB OPENINGS: Postdoctoral Fellow Positions at the University of Helsinki, Space Physics Group, Finland”