A headshot of James Clemmons, a professor in the EOS Space Science Center.

James Clemmons

PROFESSOR
Phone: (603) 862-2465
Office: Earth, Oceans & Space, Morse Hall, Durham, NH 03824
Websites:

James Clemmons works in the field of space physics. His interests include auroral phenomena, physics of the Earth's ionosphere-thermosphere system, and the magnetosphere. Primary methods of inquiry are space experiments and instrumentation, as well as analysis of data. He serves as a Co-Investigator on NASA's Van Allen Probes and Magnetospheric Multiscale missions. Recent sounding rocket experiments include the Auroral Jet and RENU-2 missions, and current projects include the VISIONS-2, TOMEX-Plus, and Dynamo-2 sounding rocket missions, the LLITED cubesat mission, analysis of data from the TWINS-ES experiment, and modeling of the atmospheric mass density anomaly beneath the earth's magnetospheric cusp.

Courses Taught

  • INCO 590: Student Research Experience
  • PHYS 407S: General Physics I Studio
  • PHYS 712: Space Plasma Physics
  • PHYS 712/812: Space Plasma Physics
  • PHYS 797: Senior Design Project
  • PHYS 812: Intro to Space Plasma Physics
  • PHYS 999: Doctoral Research

Education

  • Ph.D., Space Physics, University of California - Berkeley
  • M.A., Physics, University of California - Berkeley
  • B.S., Chemistry, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
  • B.S., Physics, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Research Interests

  • Aeronomy
  • Atmosphere: Composition & Disturbance
  • Atmospheric Physics
  • Atmospheric Remote Sensing
  • Atmospheric Sciences
  • Atmospheric Structure and Dynamics
  • Geophysics
  • Geosciences
  • Instrumentation, Techniques (Physical Sciences)
  • Ionospheres
  • Ionospheric Phenomena
  • Ionospheric Physics
  • Magnetohydrodynamics
  • Magnetospheric Phenomena
  • Physical Sciences
  • Physics
  • Plasma Physics
  • Space Sciences
  • Space Weather
  • Spacecraft
  • Turbulence

Selected Publications

  • Akbari, H., Pfaff, R., Clemmons, J., Freudenreich, H., Rowland, D., & Streltsov, A. (2022). Resonant Alfven Waves in the Lower Auroral Ionosphere: Evidence for the Nonlinear Evolution of the Ionospheric Feedback Instability. JOURNAL OF GEOPHYSICAL RESEARCH-SPACE PHYSICS, 127(2). doi:10.1029/2021JA029854

  • Lessard, M. R., Fritz, B., Sadler, B., Cohen, I., Kenward, D., Godbole, N., . . . Yeoman, T. (2020). Overview of the Rocket Experiment for Neutral Upwelling Sounding Rocket 2 (RENU2). GEOPHYSICAL RESEARCH LETTERS, 47(21). doi:10.1029/2018GL081885

  • Fritz, B. A., Lessard, M. R., Dymond, K. F., Kenward, D. R., Lynch, K. A., Hecht, J. H., . . . Solomon, S. C. (2020). RENU2 UV PMT Observations of the Cusp. GEOPHYSICAL RESEARCH LETTERS, 47(20). doi:10.1029/2019GL082314

  • Hecht, J. H., Clemmons, J. H., Lessard, M. R., Kenward, D. L., Sadler, F. B., Fritz, B. A., . . . Lynch, K. A. (2020). A New Technique for Estimating the Lifetime of Bursts of Electron Precipitation From Sounding Rocket Measurements. GEOPHYSICAL RESEARCH LETTERS, 47(18). doi:10.1029/2019GL082894

  • Pfaff, R., Larsen, M., Abe, T., Habu, H., Clemmons, J., Freudenreich, H., . . . Angelopoulos, V. (2020). Daytime Dynamo Electrodynamics With Spiral Currents Driven by Strong Winds Revealed by Vapor Trails and Sounding Rocket Probes. GEOPHYSICAL RESEARCH LETTERS, 47(15). doi:10.1029/2020GL088803

  • Burch, J. L., Torbert, R. B., Phan, T. D., Chen, L. -J., Moore, T. E., Ergun, R. E., . . . Chandler, M. (2016). Electron-scale measurements of magnetic reconnection in space. SCIENCE, 352(6290). doi:10.1126/science.aaf2939

  • Blake, J. B., Carranza, P. A., Claudepierre, S. G., Clemmons, J. H., Jr, C. W. R., Dotan, Y., . . . Zakrzewski, M. P. (2013). The Magnetic Electron Ion Spectrometer (MagEIS) Instruments Aboard the Radiation Belt Storm Probes (RBSP) Spacecraft. SPACE SCIENCE REVIEWS, 179(1-4), 383-421. doi:10.1007/s11214-013-9991-8

  • Spence, H. E., Reeves, G. D., Baker, D. N., Blake, J. B., Bolton, M., Bourdarie, S., . . . Thorne, R. M. (2013). Science Goals and Overview of the Radiation Belt Storm Probes (RBSP) Energetic Particle, Composition, and Thermal Plasma (ECT) Suite on NASA's Van Allen Probes Mission. SPACE SCIENCE REVIEWS, 179(1-4), 311-336. doi:10.1007/s11214-013-0007-5

  • Marklund, G., Karlsson, T., & Clemmons, J. (1997). On low-altitude particle acceleration and intense electric fields and their relationship to black aurora. JOURNAL OF GEOPHYSICAL RESEARCH-SPACE PHYSICS, 102(A8), 17509-17522. doi:10.1029/97JA00334

  • BOEHM, M. H., CARLSON, C. W., MCFADDEN, J. P., CLEMMONS, J. H., & MOZER, F. S. (1990). HIGH-RESOLUTION SOUNDING ROCKET OBSERVATIONS OF LARGE-AMPLITUDE ALFVEN WAVES. JOURNAL OF GEOPHYSICAL RESEARCH-SPACE PHYSICS, 95(A8), 12157-12171. doi:10.1029/JA095iA08p12157

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