Main navigation | Main content
Chris Colpitts
Research Associate
476 Tate, 626-1691, email chris @ physics.umn.edu
|
Employment:
Post-Doctoral Research Assistant, University of Minnesota, 2010-present
Graduate Research Assistant, Dartmouth College, 2002-2009
Awards:
NASA Space Grant Award, May 2007
IUGG General Assembly Student Travel Grant, June 2007
Chair of the SPA-Magnetospheric Physics Section, AGU 2006 Joint Assembly
Outstanding Student Paper Award in Space Physics and Aeronomy, AGU 2006 Joint Assembly
Research Areas
Space plasma physics, wave-particle interactionsCurrent Research
I am currently researching plasma waves in the Earth’s magnetosphere using satellite data from FAST, THEMIS, and DEMETER, among other satellites. I have most recently been investigating banded waves which occur during the strongest geomagnetic storms. My PhD work, “Mode Identification and Dispersed Features of Auroral HF Waves Observed with Sounding Rockets”, focused on using rockets to find new auroral wave features and attempting to constrain their modes and determine their generation mechanisms using basic plasma physics theory. This research combines instrumentation, data collection, data analysis, and modeling, as well as the integration of electronics into sounding rocket campaigns, and participating in the launches of the spacecraft. In the near future I will be working on the Radiation Belt Storm Probe satellite mission with colleagues here at UMN and around the world.
|
Launch of the TRICE sounding rocket in Andenes, Norway, Dec. 10, 2007.
Selected Publications
Colpitts, C. A., C. A. Cattell, J. Kozyra, and M. Parrot, Satellite observations of banded VLF emissions in conjunction with energy-banded ions during very large geomagnetic storms,, J. Geophys. Res.
Colpitts, C. A., J. LaBelle, C. A. Kletzing, and P. H. Yoon, Further sounding rocket observations of structured whistler mode auroral emissions, J. Geophys. Res.
Colpitts, C., M. Samara, J. W. LaBelle, and P. Yoon, Rocket Observations of Two Distinct Types of Dispersed Features of Auroral HF Waves, J. Geophys. Res.
Colpitts, C., M. Samara, J. W. LaBelle, and P. Yoon, Rocket Observations of Two Distinct Types of Dispersed Features of Auroral HF Waves, J. Geophys. Res.
Colpitts, C., and J. W. LaBelle, Mode Identification of Whistler Modes, Z-Modes, and Langmuir/Upper Hybrid Modes Observed in an Auroral Sounding Rocket Experiment, J. Geophys. Res.,
Education
BA, University of Montana, 2002