Dr. Preeti Bhaneja

Dr. Preeti Bhaneja

Email:  PBhaneja @ usra.edu

RESEARCH INTERESTS:

  1. My primary experience is with Digisonde and Vertical Incidence Pulsed Ionospheric Radar (VIPIR) data. I have analyzed global low, mid and currently working with high latitude digisonde data.   
    • Analyze the statistics of seasonal and solar cycle patterns for Spread-F events from ionosonde stations in the equatorial and mid-latitude regions, including levels of day-to-day variability for similar periods of solar forcing.
    • Using edge detection and pattern recognition to determine spread F and critical frequencies (foF2) and hmF2 in the ionosphere.    
    • Validate geophysical parameters obtained from ionosonde with Constellation Observing System for Meteorology Ionosphere and Climate (COSMIC) Radio Occultation (RO) profiles and geophysical models, including the International Reference Ionosphere (IRI) and the SAMI3 (Sami3 is Another Model of the Ionosphere) ionospheric model.
    • Analyze geophysical ionosonde data to determine local multi-day Planetary Wave forcing of the Earth’s ionosphere using Lomb Scargle periodogram analysis.  
  2. COSMIC data analysis:
    • Analyze COSMIC Radio Occultation profiles to determine global Planetary Wave and Tidal forcing of the ionosphere.
    • Cross-platform analysis of fine-scale ionospheric structure  (scintillation) from COSMIC RO data with meso-scale (100-km) plasma structure as detected by CINDI (Coupled Ion-Neutral Dynamics Investigation), ICON (Ionospheric CONnection), and GOLD (Global Observations of the Limb and Disk) datasets, including statistical occurrence and lag time.
  3. Sudden Stratospheric Warming Events:
    • Analyze OH and O2 emission rates and temperature data using Spectral Airglow Temperature Imager (SATI) installed at the Polar Environment Atmospheric Research Laboratory (PEARL) at Eureka.
    • Analyze SABER-TIMED and MLS-AURA satellite data sets to find temperature and emission variations as well as Millstone Hill Radar using Madrigal database to find temperature in the upper atmosphere during SSW events.
  4. Van Allen Radiation Belts:
    • Analyze Radiation Belt Storm Probe (RBSP) and FIREBIRD (Focused Investigations of Relativistic Electron Burst Intensity, Range, and Dynamics) data.
    • Developing conjunction histograms between RBSP and FIREBIRD data to correlate electron precipitation with plasma waves.
    • Development of pattern recognition and edge detection algorithms to identify microburst events in FIREBIRD CubeSat data.
    • Using spectral analysis to quantify chorus wave properties in Van Allen Probes data that will be applied towards a ray tracing analysis at times of magnetic conjunction with FIREBIRD.  

EDUCATION:

PhD, MS, Physics (Space Science), University of Texas at Dallas, Richardson, Texas; 2004-2009      

B.Eng (Electrical Engineering), Toronto Metropolitan University, Toronto;                  2000-2004