Robert W. Schunk

Professor, Physics Department and
Director, Center for Atmospheric and Space Sciences

Telephone #:(435)797-2978
E-mail address: schunk@cc.usu.edu

B.S., New York University, Aeronautical and Astronautical Engineering, 1965.
Ph.D., Yale University, Physics of Fluids and Plasmas, 1970.

Employment

University of Michigan, I.S.T. Postdoctoral Fellow, 1970–1971.
Yale University, Research Associate, 1971–1973.
Arecibo Observatory, Visiting Scientist, June, 1972.
University of California, San Diego, Assistant (1973–1975) and Associate (1975–1976) Research Physicist.
Utah State University
Associate Professor of Physics, 1976–1979.
Professor of Physics, 1979–Present.
Director, Center for Atmospheric and Space Sciences, 1983–Present.

Honors and Awards

William R. Bryans Award in Engineering Mechanics, 1965.
Gibbs Prize, 1968.
D. Wynne Thorne Research Award, Utah State University, 1983.
73rd Faculty Honor Lecture, Utah State University, 1986.
Governor's Medal for Science and Technology, State of Utah, 1988.
Fellow, American Geophysical Union, 1997.
Nicolet Lecture, American Geophysical Union, 2002
Member, International Academy of Astronautics, 2006

Selected International Memberships and Service

Member, International Union of Radio Science, Commission H, 1984–
Member, International Union of Radio Science, Commission G, 1986–
Convenor, International Association of Geomagnetism and Aeronomy, Division II Symposium on “Auroral and Equatorial Plasma Phenomena,” Prague, Czechoslovakia, 1985
Co-Chairman, AGARD/NATO Conference on “Ionospheric Structure and Variability on a Global Scale and Interactions with the Atmosphere, Magnetosphere,” Germany, 1988.
Member, Program Committee for the Quadrennial Symposium on Solar-Terrestrial Physics, SCOSTEP, 1988–1990.
Member, Program Committee for a Joint Commission C/D COSPAR Symposium on ‘Space Weather,’ 1995.
Chair, Commission C, COSPAR, a Scientific Committee of the International Council of Scientific Unions, 2004
Chair, Division II, International Association of Geomagnetism and Aeronomy, 2003–

Selected National Memberships and Service

Book, Ionospheres, Schunk and Nagy, Cambridge University Press, 2000.
Editor, AGARD/NATO Conference Proceedings, 1988
Editor, STEP Handbook of Ionospheric Models, 1996
Associate Editor, Journal of Geophysical Research, 1977–1980.
Editorial Advisory Board, Planetary and Space Science, 1985–1992.
Editorial Advisory Board, Journal of Atmospheric and Terrestrial Physics, 1991–Present
Member, Committee on Solar-Terrestrial Research, Geophysics Research Board, National Academy of Sciences; First Term: 1979–1982; Second Term: 1984–1987.
Member, Committee on Geophysical Data, Geophysics Research Board, National Academy of Sciences, 1982–1985.
Member, Subcommittee for Upper Atmospheric Facilities, NSF, 1983–1985.
Member, Mesosphere-Thermosphere-Ionosphere Panel for the NASA-SPD Strategic Implementation Study, 1989–1990.
Member, AGU Subcommittee on Electronic Transmission and Publishing of Geophysical Science, 1983–1984.
Member, AGU Awards Committee, 1990–1992.
Member, Ad-hoc NSF Panel on the National Space Weather Program, 1995.
External Reviewer for a Space Weather Program at the Naval Research Laboratory, 1996.
External Reviewer, Physics Department, University of Texas at Dallas, 1996.
Chair, SPA Fellows Committee, American Geophysical Union, 1998-2000.
Member, LWS Geospace Missions Definition Team, NASA, 2000-2003.
Member, Panel on Theory, Modeling, and Data Exploration, National Academy of Sciences, 2000-2003.
Member, Survey Committee, Decadal Survey for Solar and Space Physics, National Academy of Sciences, 2000–2003
Member, Committee on Solar and Space Physics, Geophysics Research Board, National Academy of Sciences, 2000–2003

Research

Dr. Schunk has authored or co-authored more than 350 scientific papers, and has presented or contributed to more than 500 talks at both national and international meetings. His research has been supported by numerous NASA, NSF, Air Force, and Navy grants. Dr. Schunk’s expertise lies in the general areas of plasma physics, fluid mechanics, aeronomy, space physics, electricity and magnetism, and data analysis. During his career, he has developed numerous computer models of space physics phenomena, regions, and spacecraft-environment interactions. With colleagues, he developed unique 3-dimensional time-dependent models of the ionosphere, polar wind, plasmasphere, thermosphere, plasma cloud expansions, and ionosphere/high voltage sphere interactions. He has also studied processes in the solar wind, Venus, Jupiter, and comets, as well as basic plasma physics phenomena such as plasma transport, contact potentials, electron-beam plasma interactions, shocks, and nonlinear wave-particle and wave-wave coupling. In addition, he has published numerous papers comparing model predictions with measurements, using data from several coherent and incoherent scatter radars, ionosondes, rockets, satellites, and the Space shuttle. In recent years, Dr. Schunk’s research has focused on the development of both Gauss-Markov and physics-based data assimilation models using Kalman filters.

Selected Bibliography

Schunk, R. W., and J. J. Sojka, A theoretical study of the lifetime and transport of large ionospheric density structures, J. Geophys. Res., 92, 12,343-12,351, 1987.

Schunk, R. W., A mathematical model of the middle and high latitude ionosphere, PAGEOPH, 127, 255-303, 1988.

Schunk, R. W., Magnetosphere-ionosphere-thermosphere coupling processes, Proceedings of a SCOSTEP Symposium on Solar-Terrestrial Energy Program (STEP): Major Scientific Problems, 52-110, 1988.

Schunk, R. W., and J. J. Sojka, A three-dimensional time-dependent model of the polar wind, J. Geophys. Res., 94, 8973-8991, 1989.

Rasmussen, C. E., and R. W. Schunk, A three-dimensional time-dependent model of the plasmasphere, J. Geophys. Res., 95, 6133-6144, 1990.

Schunk, R. W., L. Zhu, and J. J. Sojka, Ionospheric response to traveling convection twin vortices, Geophys. Res. Lett., 21, 1759-1762, 1994.

Schunk, R. W., and J. J. Sojka, The lower ionosphere at high latitudes, Geophysical Monograph, 87, 37-47, 1995.

Schunk, R. W., and T.-Z. Ma, The interaction of high-voltage spheres with the ionosphere, Adv. Space Res., 15, (12)87-(12)90), 1995.

Schunk, R. W., and J. J. Sojka, Ionosphere-thermosphere space weather issues, J. Atmos. Terr. Phys., 58, 1527-1574, 1996.

Schunk, R. W., and J. J. Sojka, Ionospheric models, in Modern Ionospheric Science (eds. H. Kohl, R. Rüster, and K. Schlegel), 181-215, 1996.

Schunk, R. W., L. Zhu, J. J. Sojka, and M. D. Bowline, Ionospheric response to an auroral substorm, Geophys. Res. Lett., 24, 1979-1982, 1997.

Schunk, R. W., and J. J. Sojka, The global ionosphere-polar wind system during changing magnetic activity, J. Geophys. Res., 102, 11625-11651, 1997.

Schunk, R. W., Theoretical developments on the causes of ionospheric outflow, J. Atmos. Solar-Terr. Phys., 62, 399-420, 2000.

Schunk, R. W., Ionospheric climatology and weather disturbances: A tutorial, AGU Geophys. Monograph, 125, 359-368, 2001.

Ma, T.-Z., and R. W. Schunk, The effects of multiple propagating plasma patches on the polar thermosphere, J. Atmos. Solar-Terr. Phys., 63, 355-366, 2001.

Demars., H. G., and R. W. Schunk, Seasonal and solar cycle variations of the polar wind, J. Geophys. Res., 106, 8157-8168, 2001.

Schunk, R. W., L. Scherliess, and J. J. Sojka, Ionospheric specification and forecast modeling, J. Spacecraft & Rockets, 39, 314-324, 2002.

Schunk, R. W., Ionospheric models for Earth, AGU Geophys. Monograph, 130, 299-305, 2002.

Schunk, R. W., L. Scherliess, and J. J. Sojka, Recent approaches to modeling ionospheric weather, Adv. Space Res., 31, 819-828, 2003.

Schunk, R. W., and. H. G. Demars, Effect of equatorial plasma bubbles on the thermosphere, J. Geophys. Res., 108, S1A, 5-1 to 5-8, 2003.

Gardner, L. C., and R. W. Schunk, Neutral polar wind, J. Geophys. Res., 109, A05301, 2004.

Schunk, R. W., et al., Global Assimilation of Ionospheric Measurements (GAIM), Radio Science, 39, RS1S02, doi:10.1029/2002RS002794, 2004.

Schunk, R. W., et al., USU Global ionospheric data assimilation models, Proc. of SPIE, Vol. 5548, doi:10.1117/12.562448, 327-336, 2004.

Schunk, R. W., H. G. Demars, and J. J. Sojka, Propagating polar wind jets, J. Atmos. Solar-Terr. Phys., 67, 357-364, 2005.

Schunk, R. W., L. Scherliess, J. J. Sojka, D. C. Thompson, and L. Zhu, Ionospheric weather forecasting on the horizon, Space Weather, 3, S08007, doi:10.1029/2004SW000138, 2005.