Dr Shaun Bloomfield

Associate Professor

School: Engineering, Physics and Mathematics

I graduated from Queen’s University Belfast in 2001 with a MSci (Honours) Physics with Astrophysics degree, before continuing at Queen’s for my PhD studies in Solar and Stellar Astrophysics. After successfully defending my thesis entitled “Oscillatory Phenomena in Solar and Stellar Atmospheres" in 2005, I accepted a Max Planck Fellow position at the Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research in Germany. In 2007 I moved to Trinity College Dublin in Ireland to initially work as a Research Fellow on the PROBA2 space-weather satellite, funded by the European Space Agency (ESA). During my 9 years at Trinity, I held an EU Framework Programme 7 Marie Curie Fellowship to study solar flare prediction, was promoted to Senior Research Fellow in 2012, joined the Science and Instrument Teams of the Spectrometer/Telescope for Imaging X-rays (STIX) payload on the upcoming ESA Solar Orbiter satellite mission, and in 2014 won EU Horizon 2020 funding for a space-weather consortium project (FLARECAST) as the Project Scientist. In 2016, I was appointed as a Reader at Northumbria University.

I am a Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society (FRAS), a Member of the Institute of Physics (MInstP), a lifetime Member of the Marie Curie Fellows Association and an Individual Member of both the International Astronomical Union and the European Physical Society.

In addition, I am an elected Board member of the European Solar Physics Division (ESPD) of the European Physical Society and co-Chair of the “Space Weather Forecasting” Topical Working Group within ESA’s Space Weather Working Team.

Campus Address

D119, Ellison Building

Email Shaun

Key Publications

Please visit the Pure Research Information Portal for further information
AMPERE Observations of the Asymmetry Toward Stronger Birkeland Currents in the Northern Hemisphere, Coxon, J., Vines, S., Mo, W., Townson, M., Watt, C., Rae, I., Bloomfield, D., Smith, A., Milan, S., Anderson, B., Patrick, A., Hasler, M. May 2026, In: Journal of Geophysical Research: Space Physics
Investigating the Efficacy of Topologically Derived Time Series for Flare Forecasting. II. XGBoost Model, Williams, T., Prior, C., MacTaggart, D., Aslam, O., Bloomfield, D. 1 Mar 2026, In: Astrophysical Journal
Prediction of solar energetic events impacting space weather conditions, Georgoulis, M., Yardley, S., Guerra, J., Murray, S., Ahmadzadeh, A., Anastasiadis, A., Angryk, R., Aydin, B., Banerjee, D., Barnes, G., Bemporad, A., Benvenuto, F., Bloomfield, D., Bobra, M., Campi, C., Camporeale, E., DeForest, C., Emslie, A., Falconer, D., Feng, L., Gan, W., Green, L., Guastavino, S., Hapgood, M., Kempton, D., Kitiashvili, I., Kontogiannis, I., Korsos, M., Leka, K., Massa, P., Massone, A., Nandy, D., Nindos, A., Papaioannou, A., Park, S., Patsourakos, S., Piana, M., Rawafi, N., Sadykov, V., Toriumi, S., Vourlidas, A., Wang, H., Wang, J., Whitman, K., Yan, Y., Zhukov, A. 24 Feb 2024, In: Advances in Space Research
Space Weather Forecasts of Ground Level Space Weather in the UK: Evaluating Performance and Limitations, Smith, A., Rae, J., Forsyth, C., Coxon, J., Walach, M., Lao, C., Bloomfield, D., Reddy, S., Coughlan, M., Keesee, A., Bentley, S. 12 Nov 2024, In: Space Weather
The SWAP Filter: A Simple Azimuthally Varying Radial Filter for Wide-Field EUV Solar Images, Seaton, D., Berghmans, D., Bloomfield, S., De Groof, A., D’Huys, E., Nicula, B., Rachmeler, L., West, M. 18 Jul 2023, In: Solar Physics
The high-energy Sun - probing the origins of particle acceleration on our nearest star, Matthews, S., Reid, H., Baker, D., Bloomfield, D., Browning, P., Calcines, A., Del Zanna, G., Erdélyi, R., Jeffrey, N., Klein, L., Krucker, S., Kontar, E., Long, D., MacKinnon, A., Mann, G., Mathioudakis, M., Milligan, R., Nakariakov, V., Pesce-Rollins, M., Shih, A., Smith, D., Veronig, A., Vilmer, N. 1 Dec 2022, In: Experimental Astronomy
The flare likelihood and region eruption forecasting (FLARECAST) project: Flare forecasting in the big data & machine learning era, Georgoulis, M., Bloomfield, D., Piana, M., Massone, A., Soldati, M., Gallagher, P., Pariat, E., Vilmer, N., Buchlin, E., Baudin, F., Csillaghy, A., Sathiapal, H., Jackson, D., Alingery, P., Benvenuto, F., Campi, C., Florios, K., Gontikakis, C., Guennou, C., Guerra, J., Kontogiannis, I., Latorre, V., Murray, S., Park, S., Von Stachelski, S., Torbica, A., Vischi, D., Worsfold, M. 22 Jul 2021, In: Journal of Space Weather and Space Climate
Validation of Global EUV Wave MHD Simulations and Observational Techniques, Downs, C., Warmuth, A., Long, D., Bloomfield, D., Kwon, R., Veronig, A., Vourlidas, A., Vršnak, B. 23 Apr 2021, In: The Astrophysical Journal
2D and 3D Analysis of a Torus-unstable Quiet-Sun Prominence Eruption, Rees-Crockford, T., Bloomfield, D., Scullion, E., Park, S. 30 Jun 2020, In: The Astrophysical Journal
A Comparison of Flare Forecasting Methods. IV. Evaluating Consecutive-Day Forecasting Patterns, Park, S., Leka, K., Kusano, K., Andries, J., Barnes, G., Bingham, S., Bloomfield, S., McCloskey, A., Delouille, V., Falconer, D., Gallagher, P., Georgoulis, M., Kubo, Y., Lee, K., Lee, S., Lobzin, V., Mun, J., Murray, S., Nageem, T., Qahwaji, R., Sharpe, M., Steenburgh, R., Steward, G., Terkildsen, M. 19 Feb 2020, In: The Astrophysical Journal

Professional Activity

Please visit the Pure Research Information Portal for further information
Membership of board: International Astronomical Union (IAU) (External organisation) 2021
Editorial work: Journal of Space Weather and Space Climate (Journal) 2017
Membership of board: European Solar Physics Division (External organisation) 2014

PGR Supervision

Stephen Bannister Quantification and evolution of the magnetic complexity of solar active regions and its relation to flares Start Date: 01/10/2022
Stephen Bannister Solar active region magnetic characterisation, evolution, and relation to flares Start Date: 01/10/2022 End Date: 17/10/2025
Paloma Jol A Deep (Learning) Dive into Solar Active Region Evolution and Flare Production Start Date: 25/09/2023
Paloma Jol A Deep (Learning) Dive into Solar Active Region Evolution and Flare Production Start Date: 25/09/2023 End Date: 17/10/2025