Roderick Heelis

Professional Preparation

Research Areas

Research Interests

My primary research interests center around the analysis and interpretation of data from Earth orbiting satellites. These data describe the density and motion of charged particles in the upper atmosphere. Theses particles are strongly influenced by the Earth's magnetic field and by electric fields that arise from motions of the atmosphere and the interaction of the planet with the interplanetary medium.

Our data sources from the Defense Meteorological Satellite Program and from FormosaSat-1 are very extensive and with data visualization tools we are constructing a global description of the dynamics of the charged particles and how it changes in response to variations on the Sun. In 2006 we will launch a new satellite-based experiment to examine the relationships between charged and neutral motions at low latitudes in the upper atmosphere. New instrumentation being flown in this mission will require extensive development of software to produce geophysical parameters that will make up a unique data set that has never before been available from space.

Computer models of the upper atmosphere and ionosphere can also be extremely useful in studying the Earth's space environment. With these models we conduct numerical experiments to understand the extremes of behavior that can be achieved with different drivers for electric fields. Comparisons between these numerical results and experimental data from space and from the ground are an important part of the analysis and interpretation procedures that we undertake.

In addition to these scientific studies I'm also interested in new techniques to obtain thermal plasma measurements and reduce the data. Among my present interests in this area are cylindrical section collectors and methods for deriving constituent ion temperatures in the upper atmosphere

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Awards

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Additional Information

News Articles

A Conversation With Dr. Roderick Heelis

We sat down for A Conversation With...Dr. Roderick Heelis, the Cecil and Ida Green Honors Professor of Physics and director of the William B. Hanson Center for Space Sciences at UT Dallas. Dr. Heelis is a fellow of the American Geophysical Union, an international scientific society devoted to the research of the Earth and space. He joined the UT Dallas Center for Space Sciences in 1973, after graduating from the University of Sheffield (England) with a Ph.D. in applied and computational mathematics. Heelis is an expert on “space weather,” the phenomenon of disturbances that occur in the ionosphere, the gaseous band of charged particles that surround the Earth. Space weather “storms” can disrupt GPS signals and wreak havoc on navigation systems for planes, trucks, ships and even missiles.

Solar Flares May Interrupt GPS Navigation, Researcher Says

If your GPS navigation system goes on the fritz in the coming days, you might have the sun to blame. Early this week, the sun released four X-class solar flares, the strongest type of flare. Forecasters at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration predict a 40-percent chance of more X-class flares in the coming days, some possibly pointed toward the Earth. Dr. Roderick Heelis, director of the William B. Hanson Center for Space Sciences and holder of a Distinguished Chair in Natural Sciences and Mathematics at UT Dallas, is an expert on the interaction between the sun and planetary environments, as well as the dynamics of charged particles in the Earth’s upper atmosphere. He and his colleagues measure weather in space with sophisticated instruments that fly on satellites, and they create computer models designed to predict space weather.

UT Dallas Professors Experiment Blasts into Space

An experiment run by a UT Dallas professor launched successfully this month into space on its way to a greater understanding of mysterious plasma bubbles that interrupt radio signals. Dr. Roderick Heelis is heading the experiment, called the Coupled Ion Neutral Dynamic Investigation, more affectionately known as CINDI. Dr. Heelis holds a Cecil H. and Ida Green Chair in Systems Biology and is director of the William B. Hanson Center for Space Sciences at UT Dallas. The NASA-sponsored mission is being conducted in cooperation with the Air Force. The rocket carrying CINDI launched from the underbelly of an Air Force plane on April 16. The plasma bubbles that CINDI will investigate occur mainly above Earth’s equatorial region but wreak havoc on radio communications worldwide. “Understanding when and where plasma bubbles occur, how severe they will be and how long they will last is vitally important since interference from plasma bubbles affects GPS signals and other radio signals that can travel around the globe by reflection from layers in Earth's upper atmosphere, called the thermosphere and the ionosphere,” Dr. Heelis said.

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