Description
Leader of the group Multiscale Dynamics: Ute Ebert.
Nature and technology are full of dynamics, often involving multiple scales in length, time and energy. To model these processes, we combine scientific computing with model reduction and machine learning, with particular focus on plasma dynamics in lightning and space weather, and in high voltage and plasma technology.
Our research addresses questions in nature such as start and propagation of lightning strokes, terrestrial gamma-ray flashes and space weather, and closely related technological problems such as switch gear for long-distance electricity nets, air purification and disinfection with corona reactors, and protection of satellites and electricity nets from space weather.
Within national and European projects, we collaborate with colleagues in applied plasma physics, electrical and mechanical engineering, atmospheric electricity, and cosmic particle and space science, and with non-academic partners such as ABB, DNV-GL, ESA-ESTEC and NASA.
Find more about our work (including publications) on the personal homepages of the staff scientists:
- Ute Ebert (group leader)
- Enrico Camporeale
- Jannis Teunissen (starting 1 October 2018)
and on the page with our numerical codes for Multiscale Plasma Dynamics.
View a photo of the Multiscale Dynamics group.
News
Exploding stars help to understand thunderclouds on Earth
How is lightning initiated in thunderclouds? This is difficult to answer – how do you measure electric fields inside large, dangerously charged clouds? It was discovered, more or less by coincidence, that cosmic rays provide suitable probes to measure electric fields within thunderclouds. This surprising finding will be published in Physical Review Letters on April 24nd.
Creation of antimatter from lightning simulated for the first time
In severe thunderstorms electric fields can become so high, that high energy radiation – such as X-rays and gamma rays - can be generated. Even antimatter can be formed. The highly complex interactions between high electric fields and particles in thunderstorms were not well modelled yet. Christoph Köhn, PhD student from research centre Centrum Wiskunde & Informatica (CWI) in Amsterdam, modelled and simulated these processes in a new way.
CWI improves discharge models for technical applications
Pulsed electric discharges have important applications, such as purifying polluted air in highway tunnels, disinfection and wound healing. As physical and chemical processes in pulsed discharges occur on a large variety of scales, it is difficult to model them.
Streamers in lightning better understood by new mathematical model
Streamers - electrically conducting channels in gases like air - occur in the early stages of lightning, and in industrial applications.
Members
Associated Members
Publications
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Teunissen, H.J, & Ebert, U. M. (2018). Afivo: A framework for quadtree/octree AMR with shared-memory parallelization and geometric multigrid methods. Computer Physics Communications. doi:10.1016/j.cpc.2018.06.018
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Camporeale, E, Sorriso-Valvo, L, Califano, F, & Retinò, A. (2018). Coherent structures and spectral energy transfer in turbulent plasma: A space-filter approach. Physical Review Letters, 120. doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.120.125101
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Hare, B.M, Scholten, O, Bonardi, A, Buitink, S, Corstanje, A, Ebert, U. M, … Winchen, T. (2018). LOFAR lightning imaging: Mapping lightning with nanosecond precision. Journal of Geophysical Research - Atmospheres. doi:10.1002/2017JD028132
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Bliksemschicht veroorzaakt gammaflitsen - New Scientist - 31-01-18. (2018). Bliksemschicht veroorzaakt gammaflitsen - New Scientist - 31-01-18.
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Elkholy, A, Shoshyn, Y, Nijdam, S, van Oijen, J, van Veldhuizen, E.M, Ebert, U. M, & de Goey, L.P.H. (2018). Burning velocity measurement of lean methane-air flames in a new nanosecond DBD microplasma burner platform. Experimental Thermal and Fluid Science, 95, 18–26.
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Camporeale, E, Wing, S.P, Johnson, J.R, Jackman, C.M, & McGranaghan, R. (2018). Space weather in the machine learning era: A multidisciplinary approach. Space Weather (Vol. 16, pp. 2–4). doi:10.1002/2017SW001775
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The Computational Pan-Genomics Consortium, Marschall, T, Marz, M, Abeel, T, Dijkstra, L.J, Dutilh, B.E, … Schönhuth, A. (2018). Computational pan-genomics: status, promises and challenges. Briefings in Bioinformatics, 19(1), 118–135. doi:10.1093/bib/bbw089
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Rutjes, C, Diniz, G, Ferreira, I.S, & Ebert, U. M. (2017). TGF afterglows: A new radiation mechanism from thunderstorms. Geophysical Research Letters, 44(20), 10702–10712. doi:10.1002/2017GL075552
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Bliksem produceert nagloed van gammastraling - Engineersonline.nl - 23-10-2017. (2017). Bliksem produceert nagloed van gammastraling - Engineersonline.nl - 23-10-2017.
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A natural neutron source - Physics World - 01-10-2017. (2017). A natural neutron source - Physics World - 01-10-2017. Physics World, October 2017, 13–15.
Software
Afivo: A framework for adaptive mesh refinement with geometric multigrid methods
Afivo, short for Adaptive Finite Volume Octree, is a framework for adaptive mesh refinement on quadtree (2D) and octree (3D) meshes with shared memory parallelization (OpenMP) and geometric multigrid methods.
PumpKin: Analyzing complex chemistry models
PumpKin, short for Pathway Reduction Method for Plasma Kinetic Models, is a tool for post-processing results from zero-dimensional plasma kinetics solvers.
Current projects with external funding
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Real-time forecasting of killer electrons on satellite orbits
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Artificial Intelligence Data Analysis (AIDA)
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Let CO2 spark! Understand breakdown dynamics for high voltage technology and lightning Abstract Sparks, (Let CO2 spark!)
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Science and Innovation with Thunderstorms (SAINT)
Related partners
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CNRS
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CSIC
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IT-DTU Lyngby
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Universita di Pisa
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Universitetet i Bergen
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University of Bath
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Bristol Industrial and Research Associates Limited
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DENA DESARROLLOS SL
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Katholieke Universiteit Leuven
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Technische Universiteit Eindhoven
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Universidad Politecnica Catalunya
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Université Paul Sabatier (Toulouse III)