Dr S Eleri Pryse

Deputy Director of Learning and Teaching
BSc, PhD (Wales) Photograph of Dr S Eleri Pryse.

Contact

Email: sep@aber.ac.uk
Office: 310, Physical Sciences Building, Penglais Campus
Phone: (0)1970 622 801
Fax: (0)1970 622 826

Teaching Areas

Undergraduate Modules Taught

  • PH05510 Introduction to Laboratory Physics II (Co-ordinator)
  • MP14010 Dynamics and Relativity (Co-ordinator)
  • MT14010 Dynameg a Pherthnasedd (Co-ordinator)
  • MP21010 Relativity and Mechanics (Co-ordinator)
  • PH21510 Thermal Physics I
  • PH32510 Electromagnetism (Co-ordinator)
  • PH31510 Thermal Physics II (Co-ordinator)
  • PH39320 Ionised Atmospheres and Space Plasma
  • PH34040 Advanced Techniques
  • PH35530 Individual Projects
  • PHM2510 Electromagnetic Theory
  • PHM5010 Project Dissertation (Co-ordinator)
  • PHM5860 Extended Project (Co-ordinator)
  • PHM5760 Studies In The Upper Polar Atmosphere (Co-ordinator)

Co-ordinator of IMAPS Welsh Medium teaching.

Research

My research has focused on the ionised atmosphere. Early studies used radio-wave scintillation to investigate small-scale plasma irregularities in the auroral and sub-auroral regions. More recently I have been concerned with the application of tomography to image the ionosphere, and its development from a theoretical idea to an experimental method for ionospheric investigations. The technique makes use of radio signals from satellites and yields images of the spatial distribution of plasma over a height- versus-latitude section of the ionised atmosphere. Verification of the technique relied on the EISCAT incoherent scatter radar facility. Comparisons of tomographic images with simultaneous radar measurements confirmed the potential of the ionospheric imaging technique and enabled the development of reconstruction algorithms suitable for ionospheric purposes. The method has now reached a state of maturity, and is used to study the ionised atmosphere, and for mapping ionospheric structure of interest to radio propagation applications.

A tomography receiver-chain is deployed by the Solar System Physics group of Aberystwyth University, for routine imaging of the high-latitude atmosphere with receivers at Ny Ålesund, Longyearbyen, Bjørnøya and Tromsø. This is suitably located to image the ionosphere over an extended latitudinal range spanning from the auroral zone into the polar cap. It can observe ionospheric footprints of space weather processes, and effects of magnetopause reconnection, auroral precipitation and plasma convection in the high-latitude region. The images complement measurements by a wealth of instrumentation operated by the international scientific community in the auroral and polar regions including the EISCAT/ESR and CUTLASS radars, optical cameras and satellite particle detectors, and also physical and parameterised models of the ionised atmosphere. The tomographic observations are used in collaborative studies with the International Ionospheric Tomography Community (IITC) with tomographic chains at high latitudes in Europe and Alaska.

In a recent development, my ionospheric interest is being extended to the plasma environments of other planets, with particular interest in observations by the Venus Express (VEX) spacecraft.

Biography

Educated in Aberystwyth and a former pupil of Ysgol Gyfun Penweddig, Dr. Pryse graduated with a first-class degree in Physics from the University of Wales, going on to obtain her PhD in Ionospheric Physics for an investigation of small-scale irregularities in the ionosphere using radio signals from satellites.  She was appointed a physics lecturer at Aberystwyth in 1989.  She pioneered the application of tomographic methods for imaging the ionised atmosphere, and has used the technique extensively at polar and auroral regions to study signatures of space weather and fundamental plasma processes in the high-latitude atmosphere.  She is married with a family, and has an interest in music.

Staff Publications

  • Wood, A. G., S. E. Pryse and J. Moen, Modulation of nightside polar patches by substorm activity, Ann. Geophysicae, 2009 (submitted).

  • H J Strangeways, I Kutiev, L R Cander, S Kouris, V Gherm, D Marin, B De La Morena, E Pryse, L Perrone, M Pietrella, S Stankov, L Tomasik, E Tulunay, Y Tulunay, N Zernov and B Zolesi, Near-Earth space plasma modelling and forecasting, Annals of Geophysics, 52, 3/4 June/August 2009 (in press).

  • S E Pryse, E L Whittick, A D Aylward, H R Middleton, D S Brown, M Lester and J A Secan, Modelling the tongue-of-ionisation using CTIP with SuperDARN electric potential input: verification by radiotomography, Ann. Geophysicae, 27, 1139-1152, www.ann-geophys.net/27/1139/2009/, 2009.

  • E L Whittick, S E Pryse, H R Middleton, A R Lotinga and A D Aylward, The CTIP Model with SuperDARN electric potential patterns as input: first comparison of modelled ion densities with radio tomography observations,  Earth, Moon and Planets 104(1), 45-49,  DOI:0.1007/s11038-008-9264-9, www.springerlink.com/content/53w6472172p73808/, 2009.

  • A G Wood, S E Pryse, H R Middleton and V S C Howells,  Multi-instrument observations of nightside plasma patches under conditions of IMF Bz positive, Ann. Geophysicae, 26, 2203-2216, www.ann-geophys.net/26/2203/2008/, 2008.

  • H R Middleton, S E Pryse, A G Wood and R L Balthazor, The role of the tongue-of-ionisation in the formation of the poleward wall of the main trough in the European post-midnight sector, J. Geophys. Res., 113(A2), A02306, doi:10.1029/2007JA012631, 2008.

  • S E Pryse, H R Middleton ac A G Wood, Llif yr atmosffer drydanol dros begwn y gogledd: arsylwadau tomograffi radio a SuperDARN, Gwerddon, 1(2), 38-56, 2007 (ISSN 1741-4261), www.gwerddon.org/2_llif_yr_atmosffer_drydanol_-73.aspx, 2007.

  • S E Pryse, A G Wood, H R Middleton, I W McCrea and M Lester, Reconfiguration of polar-cap plasma in the magnetic midnight sector, Ann. Geophysicae, 24(8), 2201-2208, www.ann-geophys.net/24/2201/2006/, 2006.

  • S E Pryse, L Kersley, D Malan, and G J Bishop, Parameterization of the main ionospheric trough in the European sector, Radio Sci., 41, RS5S14, doi:10.1029/2005RS003364, 2006.

  • J Moen, H C Carlson, K Oksavik, C P Nielsen, S E Pryse, H R Middleton, I W McCrea and P Gallop, EISCAT observations of plasma patches at sub-auroral cusp latitudes, Ann. Geophysicae, 24(9), 2363-2374, www.ann-geophys.net/24/2363/2006/, 2006.