A5087100027- Astro and Planetary Science
- Planetary Science and Exploration
- Solar and Space Plasma Dynamics
- Geomagnetism and Paleomagnetism Studies
- Spaceflight effects on biology
- Methane Hydrates and Related Phenomena
- Paleontology and Stratigraphy of Fossils
- Atomic and Subatomic Physics Research
KU Leuven
2023-2025
Royal Belgian Institute for Space Aeronomy
2023-2024
Understanding atmospheric escape over geological timescales is essential for constraining a planet's capacity to retain its atmosphere and sustain life. Earth’s has drastically changed in composition, with significant increase oxygen occurring during the Great Oxidation Event (GOE) 2.45 Gyr ago. Atmospheric can be ionized energized by solar radiation plasma interactions involving wind, magnetosphere, ionosphere, eventually leading into space either as neutral or an O+...
Understanding the helium budget of Earth’s atmosphere is a longstanding challenge in atmospheric science. In Earth's atmosphere, abundance and isotopic composition are shaped by interactions with both solid Earth outer space. A recent observation temporary excess 3He polar has been attributed to solar flares. The wind, which an average content ~5% He++ 3He/4He ratio ~2350—much higher than that atmosphere—precipitates mainly auroral zone, oval-shaped region...
Understanding atmospheric escape over geological timescales is essential to constrain the planet’s ability retain its atmosphere and thus sustain life. Atmospheric particles are energized through solar radiation plasma interactions between wind, Earth’s magnetosphere, ionosphere, escaping various mechanisms. For Earth, several missions provided measurements of oxygen rate. However, for current planetary conditions that strongly differ from past (e.g. stronger higher EUV...
Water was abundant on early Mars but disappeared, likely escaping into interplanetary space.Large-scale planetary magnetic fields were long thought to shield atmospheres and limit atmospheric escape, suggesting that lost most of its water after intrinsic field vanished. However, observations escape from Mars, Venus Earth as well recent numerical models question the protective effect erosion.We use a semi-empirical model investigate past oxygen hydrogen rate Mars. This uses physical...
Atmospheric erosion plays a significant role in the long-term evolution of planetary atmospheres, and therefore on development sustainability habitable conditions. escape varies over time, due to changes conditions Sun. In case magnetized planet like Earth, dominant scavenging mechanisms are polar wind cusp escape. Both processes sensitive ion supply from atmosphere, which depends solar EUV radiation composition neutral atmosphere. Moreover, they modulated by coupling between ionosphere,...