Dr. Olaf Amm

  Publications

- Personal data:

• born in Rendsburg, Schleswig-Holstein, Germany
• school also in Rendsburg
• after that civil services, again in the same place
• study of geophysics at the University of Münster, Germany, Diploma degree in 1994; supervisor: Prof. Dr. J. Untiedt
• 1995-1998: Ph.D. student at the Technical University of Braunschweig;
  during that time:
  • from 1995-1997: Guest scientist at the Finnish Meteorological Institute, Geophysical Research (FMI/GEO), Helsinki (with a HSPII/AUFE grant of the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD))
  • May 1997-July 1998: scientist at the Technical University of Braunschweig, Institute of Geophysics and Meteorology

• April 1998: Ph.D. degree at the Technical University of Braunschweig; title of the dissertation: "Direct determination of spatial distributions of ionospheric electrodynamic parameters from ground-based measurements: Theory and application in spherical coordinates"; supervisor: Prof. Dr. K.H. Glaßmeier

• since August 1998: Scientist at the Finnish Meteorological Institute, Geophysical Research (FMI/GEO), Helsinki
  (from August 1998-July 2000 supported by a postdoctoral grant of the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD))
• April 2002: Docent of Space Physics at the University of Helsinki; Docent lecture: "Ohm's law in the ionosphere and some implications" (19.2.2002); chair of evaluation committee: Prof. Dr. H.E.J. Koskinen
• January-March 2005: Visiting associate professor at the Solar-Terrestrial Environment Laboratory (STELAB), Nagoya, Japan
• September-December 2009: Visiting associate professor at the Solar-Terrestrial Environment Laboratory (STELAB), Nagoya, Japan
• March-May 2012: Visiting full professor at the Solar-Terrestrial Environment Laboratory (STELAB), Nagoya, Japan
  
  

- My work deals with:

• Studying and understanding the electrodynamics of the Earth's ionosphere, as derived from data sources (both ground-based and satellite measurements) and modelling/simulations
• Investigating the magnetoshere-ionosphere-thermosphere coupling, both by conjugate data analysis and theoretically
• Development of analysis techniques and simulations for the above-mentioned purposes
  

• PI of the MIRACLE ground-based observation network in Fennoscandia (led by FMI)
  (which includes the IMAGE magnetometer array, the STARE radar [until 2005], as well as several new, digital All-Sky cameras)
• PI of the TomoScand ionospheric tomography initiative in Fennoscandia (based on data of a network of GPS and Beacon receivers);
  project is funded by the Academy of Finland (2010-2013), and conducted in collaboration with Sodankylä Geophysical Observatory (SGO)
  

Selected other data sources for the ground magnetic field:

• CARISMA magnetometer array (Canadian Space Agency)
• MACCS magnetometer array (Augsburg college and Boston University)
• Greenland magnetometer chain (Danish Meteorological Institute)
• Magnetometer stations of the Geological Survey of Canada (CANMOS)
• The former ScandinavianMagnetometerArray (SMA) (University of Münster and University of Braunschweig, Germany)

Selected other data sources for the ionospheric electric field:

• SuperDARN or CUTLASS coherent scatter radar pairs
• The EISCAT incoherent scatter radar
  
  

• CLUSTER
• DoubleStar
• THEMIS
• CHAMP
  
  
• Other topics:
  

• Induction processes in the ground caused by ionospheric current systems, and induction processes in the ionosphere itself
• Modeling ionospheric situations that lead to large geomagnetically induced currents (GIC) on the Earth, e.g., in power lines
• Potential theory in geomagnetism and space physics
  
  
• Future topics:
• 3-dimensional modelling of the ionosphere and its link with the thermosphere
  (recent ISSI team paper on this topic published: Amm et al., Ann. Geophys., 26, 3913, 2008)
  
• SWARM satellite mission (planned launch in 2013)
  
• EISCAT 3D incoherent scatter radar (in planning phase)
  
  

- Selected scientific community positions and awards:

• Member of the Cluster/ ground-based science core group
• Co-Investigator (CoI) for the flux-gate magnetometer (FGM) on the DoubleStar satellites (launched in December 2003/ July 2004)
• Team leader of an ISSI (International Space Science Institute, Bern, Switzerland) team on Cluster/ ground-based research (2003-2005)
• Principal Investigator (PI) of the MIRACLE ground-based observation network in Fennoscandia (since 2004)
  
• Team leader of an ISSI team on 3-dimensional modelling of the ionosphere and of ionosphere-magnetosphere coupling (2005-2008)
• Co-leader of an EUROPLANET N3 science coordination team on Cluster/ ground-based research (main leader: Dr. Rumi Nakamura, Austrian Space Science Institute, Austria, Graz) (2006-2008)
  
• PI of the TomoScand ionospheric tomography initiative in Fennoscandia (funded by the Academy of Finland, 2009-2013)
  
• PI of an European Space Agency (ESA) project on "Exploiting synergies between Swarm and Cluster"
  
• Member of the steering committee of SuperMAG (global ground-based magnetometer collaboration) (since 2011)
• Member of the ECLAT advisory board (since July 2012)
  
  
• "Best reviewer" award from journal Annales Geophysicae (2007)
• "Editor's citation" award for excellence in refereeing from Journal of Geophysical Research (JGR) (2009)
  
• Associate Editor of  Journal of Geophysical Research (JGR) - Space Physics (2010-2014)
  
  

- Lecturing:

• "Potential Theory for Space Physics"

- at University of Helsinki:

• winter 2000, autumn 2004, and autumn 2008; table of contents

- at University of Uppsala (Sweden):

• autumn 2000; table of contents

Link to the Computer exercise for the Helsinki 2000 lecture
Link to the Computer exercise for the Uppsala 2000 lecture
Link to the Computer exercise for the Helsinki 2004 lecture

• "Ionospheric Physics"

- at University of Helsinki:

• winter 2003, autumn 2006, winter 2011, and winter 2013; table of contents
  

Link to the Computer exercise for the Helsinki 2006 lecture
Link to the Computer exercise for the Helsinki 2011 lecture
Link to the Computer exercise for the Helsinki 2013 lecture

- Public outreach:

• Presentation at the “Aurora Feast” Public Art Project, Heureka the Finnish Science Centre, Vantaa, Finland (Feb 5, 2006)
• Press conference on “Giant electrical tornados in outer space” at the European Geophysical Union (EGU) meeting, Vienna, Austria (April 23, 2009), followed by more than 40 news releases worldwide
• Radio interview with the German station “Deutschlandfunk” (April 23, 2009)

- Some useful links:

MIRACLE home page

MIRACLE data analysis tools

STARE yearly quicklook plots

SMA Home Page

- Other topics:

Some of my hobbies:

• Music, especially late-romantic to modern and contemporary classics (e.g. Gustav Mahler, Anton Webern, Witold Lutoslawski), but also rock and pop (mainly from the 60ies and 70ies, e.g. Eric Clapton, J.J. Cale, Al Stewart)
• Singing in a choir
• Arts (especially modern paintings and installations)
• Photographing
  
• Drinking tea (tea taster is a job I would possibly like to do in future)
• Philosophy (at the moment especially philosophy of science and ancient philosophy)
• Cosmology (this is of course related to philosophy, but overlaps also with astrophysics)
• Political science (especially foreign affairs)
• Playing (European) football, and (in former times more intensively) chess
• Playing board (and sometimes also computer) games
• Nature
• Friends
  
  

Last updated: 22 March 2013

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