Science and Faith - Dr. Pat Reiff

Professor Patricia H. Reiff is a Professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy and Director of the Rice Space Institute at Rice University. Her research focuses on space plasma physics, mostly in the area of magnetospheric physics: "space weather".

Her research includes study of the aurora borealis, solar wind-magnetosphere coupling (including solar wind control of magnetospheric and ionospheric convection), and magnetosphere-ionosphere coupling. She was a Co-I on the "IMAGE" magnetospheric imaging mission (launched March, 2000), Jim Burch, SWRI, P.I. She was the first person to prove, using Dynamics Explorer dual spacecraft data, that the aurora is caused by a mid-altitude electric field, and to propose radio sounding of the magnetosphere, which that spacecraft included as a key instrument. She is a Co-Investigator on the "Peace" plasma instrument on the ESA "Cluster 2" 4-spacecraft suite which were launched in July and August 2000.

She is a Co-Investigator for science and EPO on the "Magnetospheric Multiscale Mission" which is under construction, scheduled to launch in October 2014. She is instrumental in bringing real-time space weather forecasts and "Space Weather" information to the public.

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