Eckart March

Eckart Marsch visits his hometown Friedrichstadt (2018)

Eckart Marsch (* 1. February 1947 in Friedrichstadt ) is a German theoretical physicist , who from 1980 to 2012 at the Max Planck Institute for Aeronomy , from 2004 Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research named (MPS) Institute in Katlenburg-Lindau to Researched the physics of the solar wind , the solar corona and space plasmas and taught at the Georg-August-Universität Göttingen .

In recognition of his theoretical, data analytical and application-related research, his work as the author of scientific articles and co-editor of several books on the physics of the heliosphere , heating of the solar corona, plasma physics of the solar wind and astrophysical plasmas , as co-editor of geophysical journals and the online journal Living Reviews in Solar Physics , as an employee of scientific committees and reviewer of scientific journals as well as to honor his lectures as a lecturer and adjunct professor at the Georg-August-Universität in Göttingen, as a supervisor of doctoral students and young scientists, he was awarded the Hannes Alfvén Medal in Vienna in 2018 awarded by the European Geosciences Union (EGU). " The Hannes Alfvén Medal goes to Eckart Marsch for his fundamental contributions to our understanding of the kinetic processes and the plasma turbulence in the heliosphere, as well as to the work that made HELIOS a successful mission and initiated the Solar Orbiter ". As a theoretical plasma physicist, Eckart Marsch (often also in collaboration with the Chinese heliosphere physicist Chuan-Yi Tu from Peking University ) analyzed and interpreted in particular the plasma and magnetic field data about processes in the magnetized solar wind, obtained over a decade with the HELIOS space probes the earth and sun . In the crucial initial phases, he helped plan and coordinated the development of the ESA Solar Orbiter solar probe, which was launched in 2020. Eckart Marsch is a Fellow of the American Geophysical Union (AGU).

While he dealt with the physics of condensed matter as part of his diploma and doctoral thesis , today, after his retirement in 2012, as a retired scientist at the Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel, he also focuses on relativistic quantum mechanics and quantum field theory .

Academic career

After attending grammar school in Husum and completing his military service in North Friesland , Eckart Marsch, who was born in Friedrichstadt ( Schleswig-Holstein ), studied physics at the University of Karlsruhe and at the Technical University of Berlin from 1968 , after completing his intermediate diploma at the Christian Albrechts University in Kiel . Here he finished his studies in 1973 with a diploma and three years later acquired the title of Dr. rer. nat. in theoretical physics. The topic of his doctoral thesis was "Transport coefficients and susceptibilities of the Hubbard model in the context of the Hartree-Fock approximation ". From 1976 to 1980 he worked as a research assistant at the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics (MPE) in Garching near Munich. As a research assistant and later working group leader, he then worked at the Max Planck Institute for Aeronomy until his retirement at the beginning of 2012, and from 2004 for solar system research (MPS) in Katlenburg-Lindau (Nordheim district, Lower Saxony). During this time he also worked as a visiting scientist at the Center for Space Research at MIT in Cambridge (USA), at the Observatoire de Paris in Meudon (France), at the Institute for Astronomy in Cambridge (England), as a visiting lecturer or visiting professor in physics Institute of the University of Bern (Switzerland), from 1996 as an adjunct professor at the Georg-August University in Göttingen . Since 1990 he has been habilitated at the University of Göttingen for astronomy and astrophysics . His habilitation thesis was entitled " Kinetic Physics of the Solar Wind ".

In 1999, he turned down an appointment as a C4 professor at the Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel, but immediately after his retirement in 2012 he finally took on a one-year teaching position at the Institute for Experimental and Applied Physics. As a retired scientist, in cooperation with a former PhD student at the MPS, Yasuhito Narita from the Institute for Space Research of the Austrian Academy of Sciences in Graz , he is now intensively dealing with newer ideas on relativistic quantum mechanics and quantum field theory.

Scientific work areas

The father of three children, as a theoretical physicist, focused on plasma physics , the solar corona , the physical processes in the heliosphere , the particles , waves and turbulence in the solar wind and the effects of space weather . Since 2000 he has played a leading role in defining the scientific goals of the ESA “ Solar Orbiter ” mission and accompanying some of the instrumental development work. He has participated in summer schools and workshops, has had a major say in the content and design of trend-setting specialist books, was co-editor of scientific journals, himself as an author and co-author on the publication of more than three hundred articles, some of which were very frequently cited. He was a member of important scientific committees and worked as a reviewer for leading scientific journals.

The goal of the theorist Eckart Marsch was to bring theoretical and analytical knowledge into harmony with the observation data gained (and statistically processed) by space probes, and also to gain a global view of the complex physical processes involved. The main topics of his work were the acquisition of knowledge about the formation, heating and acceleration of the solar wind in the inner heliosphere as well as the analysis of the plasma turbulence within the framework of magnetohydrodynamics (MHD) and with the help of kinetic theories .

In his studies, he examined the properties of the three-dimensional flow structures of the solar wind through statistical analysis, in particular of the data obtained from the HELIOS space probes , and discovered special features of the anisotropic , radial development of the speed distribution functions of protons and alpha particles . He succeeded in demonstrating the occurrence of wave-particle interactions using measurements. Early on he brought the possibility of plasma heating and acceleration through ion cyclotron resonance processes into play. In addition to studying magnetohydrodynamically interpretable turbulent MHD energy cascade models and dissipation processes with the help of wave modes , he also developed kinetic models for the analysis of various turbulence phenomena in the largely collision-free plasma of the solar wind. For the first time, he also carried out MHD model calculations and data evaluation profitably with Alsatian variables and analyzed the multifractal nature of fluctuations and their dissipation in turbulent energy cascades .

Eckart Marsch also received the awards for his life's work as a supervisor of doctoral students and teachers of young students who were interested in heliospheric and space plasma physics. For many years he gave regular lectures at the International Max Planck Research School in Katlenburg-Lindau and the Georg August University in Göttingen .

Awards

In recognition of his high scientific standing in geophysics , he was appointed an AGU Fellow by the President of the American Geophysical Union (AGU) in 2009 .

Due to his many contributions to a deeper understanding of heliospherical physical processes, he was awarded the Hannes Alfvén Medal in 2018 at the annual meeting of the European Geosciences Union (EGU) . At this annual conference he gave a lecture entitled "Solar wind and kinetic heliophysics".

Publication of books

• with R. Schwenn (Ed.): Physics of the Inner Heliosphere I - Large-Scale Phenomena (= Physics and Chemistry in Space 20). Springer-Verlag, Heidelberg 1990, ISBN 978-3-642-75363-3 .
• with R. Schwenn (Ed.): Physics of the Inner Heliosphere II - Particles, Waves and Turbulence . (= Physics and Chemistry in Space 21). Springer-Verlag, Heidelberg 1991, ISBN 978-3-642-75366-4 .
• with R. Schwenn (Ed.): Solar Wind Seven - COSPAR Colloquia Series . Pergamon Press, Oxford 1992.
• with C.-Y. Tu: MHD Structures, Waves and Turbulence in the Solar Wind, Observations and Theories . Academic Publishers, Reprinted from Space Science Reviews, Vol. 73, Nos. 1-2, 1-210, Springer, New York 1995, ISBN 0-7923-3345-4 .
• with J. Büchner, WI Axford, VM Vasyliunas (Ed.) Plasma Astrophysics and Space Physics . Kluwer Academic Publishers, Dordrecht 1999.
• with K. Scherer, H. Fichtner: The Outer Heliosphere: Beyond the Planets . Copernicus Society, Katlenburg-Lindau 2000, ISBN 3-9804862-3-0 .
• with K. Scherer, H. Fichtner, H.-J. Fahr: The Outer Heliosphere: The Next Frontiers . COSPAR Colloquia Series, Vol. 11, Pergamon, 2001, ISBN 0-444-50909-7 .
• with D. Burgess, J. Drake, R. von Steiger, M. Velli, T. Zurbuchen (Eds.): Multi-Scale Physics in Coronal Heating and Solar Wind Acceleration. Space Science Series of ISSI, Vol.38 . Springer, New York 2013, ISBN 978-1-4939-0026-8 , ISSN  1385-7525 .
• with GP Zank, J. Borovsky, R. Bruno, J. Cirtain, S. Cranmer, H. Elliott, J. Giacalone, W. Gonzalez, G. Li, E. Moebius, N. Pogorelov, J Spann, O. Verkhoglyadova (Ed.): Solar Wind 13: Proceedings of the Thirteenth International Solar Wind Conference . AIP Conference Proceedings, 2013.

credentials

1. ↑ LRSP. In: Living Reviews in Solar Physics. Springer Nature Switzerland AG, accessed on July 27, 2018 (English). 
2. ^ Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research: MPS: Solar Plasma. Retrieved July 30, 2018 . 
3. ↑ Personal details . In: Physics Journal . tape 47 , no. 1 , January 1991, ISSN  0031-9279 , pp. 11–12 , doi : 10.1002 / phbl.19910470103 ( wiley.com [PDF; accessed July 27, 2018]).
4. ^ Eckart Marsch: Kinetic Physics of the Solar Wind Plasma. In: Physics of the Inner Heliosphere II. Particles, Waves and Turbulence. Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg New York., 1991, accessed on July 27, 2018 (English). 
5. ↑ Eckart Marsch | Works | beck-shop.de. Retrieved July 30, 2018 . 
6. ↑ Eckart Marsch's areas of work and publications. Retrieved on August 21, 2018 (German). 
7. ↑ NASA / ADS Search. Retrieved July 30, 2018 . 
8. ^ Eckart Marsch - Google Scholar Citations. Retrieved July 30, 2018 . 
9. ^ AGU Fellows - Space Physics and Aeronomy . In: Space Physics and Aeronomy . ( agu.org [accessed July 30, 2018]).
10. ^ Hannes Alfvén Medal. European Geosciences Union (EGU), 2018, accessed on July 30, 2018 . 
11. ^ Solar wind and kinetic heliophysics. Retrieved November 30, 2018 .