Bob Weigel
Associate Professor, Atmospheric Physics
Director, Space Weather Lab
Graduate Coordinator, CSI PhD Program
Email: rweigel@gmu.edu
Office: 360 Research Hall Fairfax, Va. 22030
Phone: 703.993.1361 Fax: 703.993.9300
Current Research Interests
My research involves two broad areas: Space Weather (or Space Plasma Physics) and Data Sciences. My research interests include magnetospheric physics and geomagnetism, solar wind/magnetosphere/ionosphere coupling, inverse methods for magnetospheric modeling, nonlinear dynamics, decision theory applied to rare event forecasting, scientific visualization, and large-scale time series databases.
In the area of Space Weather, I study how Earth’s magnetic field interacts with the solar wind. The solar wind is a fully ionized plasma that is constantly flowing out of the sun. The solar wind causes a wide variety of electrical and magnetic phenomenon above Earth’s atmosphere, the most widely known of which is the aurora. This region above the atmosphere is called the magnetosphere; it extends to approximately the Moon’s orbit and encompases the orbit of many satellites used for telecommunications.
In the area of the Data Sciences, I work on many applied problems involving the visualization, management, and analysis of massive streams of data containing information about the solar wind and plasma in Earth’s magnetosphere.
Teaching
Graduate
CSI 769: Magnetospheric Physics
CSI 769: Space Plasma Physics
CSI 763: Statistical Methods in the Space Sciences
Undergraduate
CDS 130: Computing for Scientists
ASTR 111: Introduction to Astronomy
ASTR 114: Astronomy Lab
Additional questions and feedback on the CDS 130 site can be addressed to:
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