Rami Vainio profile picture
Rami
Vainio
Professor, Space Research Laboratory
Professor

Contact

+358 29 450 4294
+358 50 511 4972
Vesilinnantie 5
20500
Turku

Areas of expertise

Space physics
solar physics
astrophysics

Biography

I am a professor of space physics at the Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Turku, Finland, and the head of Space Research Laboratory (SRL), which performs experimental, theoretical and computational research on high-energy phenomena in near-Earth space. SRL continuously collaborates with several research groups in Finland and abroad and most of our research projects are joint efforts with a large number of researchers working on the same topics. SRL develops instrumentation for detecting energetic charged particles and numerical simulation codes to understand the propagation of charged particles through electromagnetic fields in space.

Teaching

Interest areas: Space Physics, Plasma Physics, Astrophysics

Responsibilities: In charge of the Space Physics curriculum in the University of Turku.
Lecturing courses on Mathematical Methods in Physics II (BSc, 5 cp); Space Physics (BSc, 5 cp); Hydrodynamics and Hydromagnetics (MSc, 8 cp); Plasma Astrophysics (MSc, 8cp).

Research

Solar energetic particles (SEPs). The Sun produces very energetic particles during solar eruptions, i.e., solar flares and coronal mass ejections (CMEs). These outburst of energetic particles are called SEP events or solar particle events. Because they can penetrate thick layers of material, SEPs constitute a severe radiation risk to humans and electronics in space. Together with my research group and collaborators, I study the acceleration of SEPs close to the Sun and their transport in the interplanetary medium to near-Earth space and beyond, as well as the near-Earth radiation environment generated by SEPs.

Shock waves are transitions from supersonic to subsonic flow associated with compression (i.e., increase of density) and dissipation (i.e., conversion of ordered kinetic energy of the flow to random thermal energy). In ordinary gases, shocks have thicknesses of the order of the collisional mean free path of the molecular motion. In dilute space plasmas, binary collisions are too infrequent to account for the dissipation and re-distribution of energy. Instead, collective processes involving fluctuating electromagnetic fields take the role of collisions. Such shocks are termed collisionless shocks. In the absence of binary collisions, collisionless shocks generate energetic particle populations (such as SEPs) and together with my research group and collaborators, I focus on understanding this acceleration process in detail.

Publications

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FORESAIL‐1 CubeSat Mission to Measure Radiation Belt Losses and Demonstrate Deorbiting (2019)

Journal of Geophysical Research: Space Physics
M. Palmroth, J. Praks, R. Vainio, P. Janhunen, E. K. J. Kilpua, A. Afanasiev, M. Ala‐Lahti, A. Alho, T. Asikainen, E. Asvestari, M. Battarbee, A. Binios, A. Bosser, T. Brito, M. Dubart, J. Envall, U. Ganse, N. Yu. Ganushkina, H. George, J. Gieseler, S. Good, M. Grandin, S. Haslam, H.‐P. Hedman, H. Hietala, N. Jovanovic, S. Kakakhel, M. Kalliokoski, V. V. Kettunen, T. Koskela, E. Lumme, M. Meskanen, D. Morosan, M. Rizwan Mughal, P. Niemelä, S. Nyman, P. Oleynik,
A. Osmane, E. Palmerio, J. Peltonen, Y. Pfau‐Kempf, J. Plosila, J. Polkko, S. Poluianov, J. Pomoell, D. Price, A. Punkkinen, R. Punkkinen, B. Riwanto, L. Salomaa, A. Slavinskis, T. Säntti, J. Tammi, H. Tenhunen, P. Toivanen, J. Tuominen, L. Turc, E. Valtonen, P. Virtanen, T. Westerlund
(Vertaisarvioitu alkuperäisartikkeli tai data-artikkeli tieteellisessä aikakauslehdessä (A1))

Properties of Cosmic Helium Isotopes Measured by the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer (2019)

Physical Review Letters
Aguilar M, Cavasonza LA, Ambrosi G, Arruda L, Attig N, Bachlechner A, Barao F, Barrau A, Barrin L, Bartoloni A, Basegmez-du Pree S, Battiston R, Becker U, Behlmann M, Beischer B, Berdugo J, Bertucci B, Bindi V, de Boer W, Bollweg K, Borgia B, Boschini MJ, Bourquin M, Bueno EF, Burger J, Burger WJ, Cai XD, Capell M, Caroff S, Casaus J, Castellini G, Cervelli F, Chang YH, Chen GM, Chen HS, Chen Y, Cheng L, Chou HY, Choutko V, Chung CH, Clark C, Coignet G, Consolandi C, Contin A, Corti C, Cui Z, Dadzie K, Dai YM, Datta A, Delgado C, Della Torre S, Demirkoz MB, Derome L, Di Falco S, Di Felice V, Diaz C, Dimiccoli F, von Doetinchem P, Dong F, Donnini F, Duranti M, Egorov A, Eline A, Feng J, Fiandrini E, Fisher P, Formato V, Galaktionov Y, Gamez C, Garcia-Lopez RJ, Gargiulo C, Gast H, Gebauer I, Gervasi M, Giovacchini F, Gomez-Coral DM, Gong J, Goy C, Grabski V, Grandi D, Graziani M, Guo KH, Haino S, Han KC, He ZH, Hsieh TH, Huang H, Huang ZC, Incagli M, Jang WY, Jia Y, Jinchi H, Kanishev K, Khiali B, Kim GN, Kirn T, Konyushikhin M, Kounina O, Kounine A, Koutsenko V, Kulemzin A, La Vacca G, Laudi E, Laurenti G, Lazzizzera I, Lebedev A, Lee HT, Lee SC, Li JQ, Li Q, Li TX, Li ZH, Light C, Lin CH, Lippert T, Liu Z, Lu SQ, Lu YS, Luebelsmeyer K, Luo F, Luo JZ, Luo X, Lyu SS, Machate F, Mana C, Marin J, Martin T, Martinez G, Masi N, Maurin D, Menchaca-Rocha A, Meng Q, Mo DC, Molero M, Mott P, Mussolin L, Nelson T, Ni JQ, Nikonov N, Nozzoli F, Oliva A, Orcinha M, Palermo M, Palmonari F, Paniccia M, Pashnin A, Pauluzzi M, Pensotti S, Phan HD, Plyaskin V, Poireau V, Poluianov S, Popkow A, Qi XM, Qin X, Qu ZY, Quadrani L, Rancoita PG, Rapin D, Conde AR, Rosier-Lees S, Rozhkov A, Rozza D, Sagdeev R, Schael S, Schmidt SM, von Dratzig AS, Schwering G, Seo ES, Shan BS, Shi JY, Siedenburg T, Solano C, Song JW, Sun ZT, Tacconi M, Tang XW, Tang ZC, Tian J, Ting SCC, Ting SM, Tomassetti N, Torsti J, Tuysuz C, Urban T, Usoskin I, Vagelli V, Vainio R, Valente E, Valtonen E, Acosta MV, Vecchi M, Velasco M, Vialle JP, Wang LQ, Wang NH, Wang QL, Wang X, Wang XQ, Wang ZX, Wei J, Weng ZL, Wu H, Xiong RQ, Xu W, Yan Q, Yang Y, Yi H, Yu YJ, Yu ZQ, Zannoni M, Zeissler S, Zhang C, Zhang F, Zhang JH, Zhang Z, Zhao F, Zheng ZM, Zhuang HL, Zhukov V, Zichichi A, Zimmermann N, Zuccon P
(Vertaisarvioitu alkuperäisartikkeli tai data-artikkeli tieteellisessä aikakauslehdessä (A1))

In Situ Data and Effect Correlation During September 2017 Solar Particle Event (2019)

Space Weather: the International Journal of Research and Applications
Jiggens P, Clavie C, Evans H, O'Brien TP, Witasse O, Mishev AL, Nieminen P, Daly E, Kalegaev V, Vlasova N, Borisov S, Benck S, Poivey C, Cyamukungu M, Mazur J, Heynderickx D, Sandberg I, Berger T, Usoskin IG, Paassilta M, Vainio R, Straube U, Muller D, Sanchez-Cano B, Hassler D, Praks J, Niemela P, Leppinen H, Punkkinen A, Aminalragia-Giamini S, Nagatsuma T, Nagatsuma T
(Vertaisarvioitu alkuperäisartikkeli tai data-artikkeli tieteellisessä aikakauslehdessä (A1))

National Programme for Radiation Safety Research 2018-2022 (2018)

Teemu Siiskonen, Maarit Muikku, Kari Peräjärvi, Filip Tuomisto, Juha Toivonen, Mika Valden, Tarmo Lipping, Jukka Lehto, Sauli Savolainen, Mika Kortesniemi, Peter Dendooven, Kai Nordlund, Jukka Juutilainen, JOnne Naarala, Sisako Salomaa, Jan Seppälä, Arja Kullaa, Paul Greenlees, Juha Röning, Heljä Oikarinen, Osmo Tervonen, Jaana Jurvansuu, Anssi Auvinen, Pietari Skyttä, Rami Vainio, Mika Teräs, Eeva Salminen, R. Aaltonen, P. Boström, A. Karlsson, V. Madekivi, Jani Keyriläinen
(Julkaistu kehittämis- tai tutkimusraportti taikka -selvitys (D4))