Rate My Professor Adrian Grocott

Professor Adrian Grocott is the Professor of Solar-Terrestrial Physics in the Department of Physics at Lancaster University. A Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (FHEA), he also serves as Director of Teaching within the department. His primary research specializations encompass the coupling between the solar wind and Earth's magnetosphere, and the consequent effects on the high-latitude ionosphere and thermosphere through processes associated with space weather. Key academic interests include magnetospheric substorms, characterized by the storage and sudden release of solar wind energy that produces the aurora borealis and intensifies atmospheric electrical current systems; the electrodynamics of the sub-auroral ionosphere, including its interactions with the inner magnetosphere and radiation belts; and geomagnetic storms, which feature extreme solar wind driving that expands the auroral oval into mid-latitudes. Grocott's investigations leverage observations from global radar networks like SuperDARN and satellite data to model ionospheric convection, electric potentials, and Joule heating.

Grocott's career trajectory includes a postdoctoral research associate position in the Department of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Leicester from October 2002 to September 2013, followed by progressive appointments at Lancaster University as Lecturer in Physics, Senior Lecturer in Space Plasma Physics, and Professor of Solar-Terrestrial Physics. He received the competitively awarded JSPS Invitation Fellowship, hosted by the National Institute of Polar Research in Tokyo, Japan, in May 2011. As a core member of the international Super Dual Auroral Radar Network (SuperDARN) consortium, which operates radars worldwide to monitor upper atmospheric dynamics, Grocott contributed to the team's 2017 Royal Astronomical Society Group Achievement Award in Geophysics. He has served as principal investigator on major grants, including NERC-funded projects such as 'Predicting the upper atmospheric response to extremes of space weather forcing' (£403,379, 2020-2024), EISCAT_3D: Fine-scale structuring, scintillation, and electrodynamics (FINESSE) (£245,002, 2022-2026), and 'Modelling the impact of geomagnetically induced currents on the UK's power network' (ST/Y002040/1, 2024). Select key publications include 'Modeling the Time-Variability of the Ionospheric Electric Potential (TiVIE)' (Space Weather, 2025), 'Reliability of Matching AMPERE Field-Aligned Current Boundaries With SuperDARN Lower Latitude Ionospheric Convection Boundaries During Geomagnetic Storms' (Journal of Geophysical Research: Space Physics, 2025), 'Observation of Quiet-Time Mid-Latitude Joule Heating and Comparisons With the TIEGCM Simulation' (2024), and 'A Model of High Latitude Ionospheric Convection Derived From SuperDARN EOF Model Data' (2023). His contributions have significantly influenced space weather modeling, enhancing predictions for satellite operations and power grid resilience.