REU Site: Undergraduate Research Participation Site at the Space Physics Research Laboratory, University of Michigan

Regents Of The University Of Michigan - Ann Arbor, Ann Arbor MI

Investigators

Abstract

This award is to continue a Research Experience for Undergraduates program at the Space Physics Research Laboratory of the University of Michigan. Ten to thirteen undergraduate students are competitively selected to spend three summer months working with one of about 30 faculty members. Research areas include Airglow and Atmospheric Science, Space Plasma Physics, Planetary Atmospheres, Ionospheres and Magnetospheres, Air Pollution Transport, and Lidars. The students have opportunities to interact with their mentors, other undergraduate students in the program, graduate students at the university and other faculty members and research staff. They are able to have hands on experience working with instrumentation which has or will fly in space, making remote sensing measurements of the atmosphere, and fabricating and calibrating components of these state of the art systems. They are also able to choose to construct and work with software packages which solve analytical expressions, present space flight data in image forms, and manipulate large data bases. A portion of their experience involves attending weekly seminars given by the faculty staff, writing up their work in a report for their mentor (which may be publishable), and presenting their report orally to the students and staff.