Dr. Mario M. Bisi
Post-Doctoral Research Associate
MPhys (WALES - Cardiff), PhD (WALES - Aberystwyth)
Contact
Email: Mario.Bisi@aber.ac.uk
Office: 301, Physical Sciences Building, Penglais Campus
Phone: +44-1970-622809
Fax: +44-1970-622826
Personal Web Site:http://www.spacephysicist.com/
Teaching Areas
Undergraduate Modules Taught
PH25520 - Experimental Physics (assisted on)
PH24610 - Stars (assisting on)
PH34040 - Advanced Techniques
PH38720 - The Sun and Heliosphere
PHM4810 - Advanced Topics in Solar System Physics
PHM4410 - Advanced Topics In Modern Physics
PHM5010 - Project Dissertation
Research
Space Solar and Heliospheric Science
Current Projects
Presently, Dr. Bisi’s main focus is based on three-dimensional (3-D) reconstructions of the inner heliosphere using multiple sources if interplanetary scintillation (IPS) data as well as white-light data. The sources of IPS data include: the Solar-Terrestrial Environment Laboratory (STELab) IPS arrays, Nagoya University, Japan; the Ootacamund (Ooty) Radio Telescope (ORT), TATA Institute of Fundamental Research, India; the European Incoherent SCATter (EISCAT) radio telescope system in northern Scandinavia (Norway, Sweden, and Finland) as well as the EISCAT Svalbard Radar (ESR) located near Longyearbyen on Spitsbergen in the northern archipelago of Svalbard deep inside the Arctic Circle; and also the Multi-Element Radio-Linked Interferometer Network (MERLIN) radio telescope system, Manchester Universities, England, United Kingdom (UK). He has also used white-light data from the Solar Mass Ejection Imager (SMEI) aboard the Coriolis satellite in Earth orbit – currently run by the United States (US) Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) in conjunction with the University of California, San Diego (UCSD). As well as working with IPS and SMEI data, he has made extensive comparison with multi-spacecraft remote-sensing observations and in-situ measurements. In addition, he is involved with the new IPS experiments on the LOw Frequency ARray (LOFAR) and the Kilpisjärvi Atmospheric Imaging Receiver Array (KAIRA - a test-bed for EISCAT_3D based on LOFAR technologies) and the new low-frequency receivers (224 MHz) installed at two of the three EISCAT mainland sites. The main aims of the projects are to determine solar wind structure and to investigate the physics behind the solar wind, transients within it (such as coronal mass ejections - CMEs), and stream interaction regions (SIRs) and the potential space weather then bring when they hit or interact with the Earth. In addition, he is involved with numerous world-wide collaborations linking IPS and SMEI observations with other sources of solar-wind data and comparison between the 3-D reconstructed heliosphere and the environment, as measured by spacecraft, at various locations in the heliosphere. He has great interest with interactions between comet tails and the solar wind, and with colleagues at UCSD, has used IPS, SMEI, and Solar TErrestrial RElations Observatory (STEREO) Heliospheric Imager white-light observations to study such interactions.
Biography
Dr. Bisi completed his combined Masters degree (MPhys) in “Physics with Astronomy” at the University of Wales, Cardiff (now Cardiff University), in Wales, UK, in the summer of 2002, and later went on to complete his Ph.D. in the summer of 2006 entitled “Interplanetary Scintillation Studies of the Large-Scale Structure of the Solar Wind” at the Institute of Mathematical and Physical Sciences (IMAPS), University of Wales, Aberystwyth (now the Institute of Mathematics and Physics, Aberystwyth University), Wales, UK. He concentrated on interplanetary scintillation (IPS) studies of the solar wind at relatively high frequencies (928 MHz/1420 MHz) using EISCAT in conjunction with MERLIN. He has also worked with the ESR observing at 500 MHz. He assisted in the development of the multi-frequency and extremely-long baseline (ELB) IPS observations between the EISCAT, ESR, and MERLIN radio-telescope systems.
At time of writing (30 November 2012), Dr. Bisi has 51 peer-reviewed papers, including 14 where he is the first author, plus nine technical/non-refereed publications as well as many more submitted and in preparation with world-wide collaborators amounting to an overall involvement with some 75 publications. He has had (at time of writing) 11 invited conference talks as first author and 18 as non-first author plus had a large involvement in over 180 contributions (around 70 of which he was first author), and many of which he himself has presented. Recent highlights from his solar wind and heliospheric research include the production of the first three-dimensional (3-D) reconstructions (using the UCSD 3-D Computer Assisted Tomography - CAT - solar wind kinematic model) of the velocity distribution from IPS observations using EISCAT/ESR/MERLIN, and the successful application of this pioneering technique developed at UCSD to the Ootacamund (Ooty) Radio Telescope (ORT) IPS data for both density and velocity.
He has also produced an extensive Solar Physics journal article (of 79 pages) detailing the most-complete picture of a CME from the Sun to the Earth thus far (as of publication in 2010) by leading an international team of 28 scientists from 16 institutions investigating the 13 May 2005 CME from its solar onset through the interplanetary medium to its interaction with the Earth (http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2010SoPh..265...49B). He remains heavily involved with the continuing tomographic work using IPS data from STELab and Ooty, and with white-light observations from SMEI. He is also involved with future projects such at the European LOw Frequency ARray (LOFAR) and the joint Australian/US Murchison Widefield Array (MWA) project.
Dr. Bisi is part of several major international collaborations, and as a core member of the International IPS Consortium, he is involved with standardising the IPS world-wide data format. During the International Heliophysical Year (IHY) he conducted IPS investigations in conjunction with Ulysses, SMEI, the Solar TErrestrial RElations Observatory (STEREO) twin spacecraft, the SOlar and Heliospheric Observatory UltraViolet Coronagraph Spectrometer (SOHO|UVCS), and a large concentration of work on the Whole Heliosphere Interval (WHI) which was part of IHY. He is also a member of the Murchison Widefield Array (MWA) Solar, Heliospheric, and Ionospheric (SHI) working group. Dr. Bisi has been a lead organiser or a co-organiser of multiple international workshops and conference sessions at very-high-profile conferences and also a co-author of over 50 submitted funding proposals ranging in value from US$10k to over US$100M; many of which he was at least a Co-Investigator.
Dr. Bisi is involved with outreach activities including having contributed to the project “Promoting STFC science to the disengaged: Radio and online outreach” funded by the Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC) in the UK in 2008 and run by Aberystwyth University is Wales, UK, and also as a guest writer for http://www.astroengine.com/ as well as presently maintaining his own online Space, Solar, and Heliospheric Science site at http://www.spacephysicist.com/. Dr. Bisi has also taken part in several radio interviews for BBC Radio Wales, an online interview for Discover Space, and has had several articles around the World released from work presented at the NAM/MIST/UKSP Meeting in 2010 based on the above-highlighted substantial paper..
In addition, Dr. Bisi is a Guest Editor for the Springer's Solar Physics journal in three Topical Issues: “Remote Sensing of the Inner Heliosphere” (2010); “The Sun--Earth Connection near Solar Minimum: Placing it into Context” (2011), and “Observations and Modelling of the Inner Heliosphere” (2012/2013).
Staff Links
http://www.spacephysicist.com/
Additional Interests
Providing Senior Lecturer cover for Research and Research Administration
Postdoctoral Scholar (University of California, San Diego) – 01 September 2006 - 31 December 2009