St.-Maurice, Jean-Pierre

Professor and Canadian Research Chair,

Research and Academic Interests

The focal point of the research undertaken by Professor St-Maurice and his collaborators is the ionosphere. In the grand scheme of things, this region is the interface where the neutral atmosphere meets the upper ionized regions called magnetosphere and plasmasphere. The ionospheric region is rich with electrical currents triggered either by neutral winds and atmospheric tides generators at lower altitudes and latitudes or by the interaction of the solar wind with the magnetosphere at much higher altitudes and latitudes. In the latter case the electrical currents trigger the spectacular aurora borealis. Some of the research is devoted to the small scale processes responsible for the redistribution of energy and momentum inside a particular constituent like the plasma itself. Or they can involve the exchange of energy and momentum between constituents like the plasma and the background neutral gas. These studies involve the study of the evolution of structures and, ultimately, turbulence. They also involve the study of ion velocity distributions, which can be very different from the Maxwellian (Gaussian) shape associated with thermal equilibrium. The exchange of momentum and energy between species also triggers larger scale phenomena, for instance, large scale winds and internal gravity waves in the neutral atmosphere. Finally, on larger scales still, the solar wind deposits a lot of its energy and momentum to the magnetosphere and ionosphere, creating a large scale circulation pattern that covers the polar cap and the auroral regions, and sometimes extends to equatorial regions! The research group is particularly interested nowadays in the circulation that takes place over the polar cap itself, outside the auroral regions proper. Prof St-Maurice uses theoretical tools like kinetic and plasma theory to study small scale processes, numerical and theoretical tools to study the neutral wind circulation, Joule heating, and the generation of internal gravity waves in the atmosphere, and experimental tools like radar and satellite data to study large scale processes and plasma turbulence in the radar case, and to study more local kinetic processes in the satellite case. He is currently a co-PI on the US funded AMISR incoherent scatter radar at Resolute Bay and an international PI on the SuperDARN radar network, which currently comprises of the order of 20 radars used to study the plasma circulation on a global scale.

For short vignettes on Prof. St-Maurice's research interests, click here (for u of S production) or here (for Nortel production where you'll need Real Player 8 or higher)

For more details go to Prof. St-Maurice's personnal web page.

Research Links:

Institute of Space and Atmospheric Studies (ISAS)
Personnal web page