Richard B. Horne
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Richard B. Horne | |
|---|---|
| Education | University of Sheffield University of Sussex |
| Scientific career | |
| Institutions | Rutherford Appleton Laboratory British Antarctic Survey University of Sheffield |
Richard B. Horne FRS FRAS is a scientist who specialises in space weather, ionospheric physics and plasma physics. He has served as the head of space weather at the British Antarctic Survey. Horne has been a Fellow of the Royal Society since 2021,[1] and was awarded the Gold Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society in 2022.[2]
Horne received his first degree in Physics from the University of Sheffield from 1974 to 1977 before completing a PhD at the University of Sussex from 1977, completing in 1980[3] or 1982.[4]
Research
Horne joined the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory in 1981 as a Higher Scientific Officer before moving to the British Antarctic Survey in 1984.[5]
Horne received recognition for his work on wave-particle interactions in space. In particular, Horne showed how plasma waves had the capability to accelerate charged particles to relativistic speeds, and that these particles had an effect on the formation of the radiation belts.[1] In 2005, he received awards from NASA and ESA for his work showing that very low frequency plasma waves are a major cause of the Van Allen belts, which was validated with the 2012 launch of the Van Allen Probes.[6]
From 2011 to 2017, Horne led two collaborations- SPACECAST and SPACESTORM- to successfully produce operational forecasts of space weather impacts on satellites, which are now used by the European Space Agency and other clients.[1] Horne's contribution to the SPACESTORM collaboration led directly to significantly higher risk estimates of the risk of space weather to satellites, and led to revised assessments of space weather on the National Risk Register in 2017 and 2020.[4]