Falling Walls Falling Walls Science Summit 2023

Breaking the Wall of Ignorosphere: The Dune Aurora

Minna Palmroth

Physical Sciences

Together with Finnish amateur photographers, Prof. Palmroth and her team discovered a new type of aurora, named the dunes. The dunes present a new opportunity to investigate ignorosphere, a layer of upper atmosphere that is notoriously difficult to observe. The team published a high impact paper linking the dunes to mesospheric bores, a rare wave form. The discovery opens a new branch of research as it may add to the handful of interaction mechanisms between space physics and atmospheric physics.

Tags: Citizen Science, Environment & Nature, Open Access, Science Communication, Space & the Universe

Minna Palmroth

University of Helsinki

Minna Palmroth is a professor in computational space physics at the University of Helsinki and Finnish Meteorological Institute. She is the Director of the Finnish Centre of Excellence in Research of Sustainable Space, Finland’s first own space program. Palmroth has won the prestigious European Research Council grant twice (Starting 2007; Consolidator 2015). Of her scientific achievements, the most important is Vlasiator, the world’s most accurate space environment simulation. Palmroth holds important positions of trust and is highly active in outreach, societal impact and policy advising.

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