Professor Clare Watt

Professor

School: Engineering, Physics and Mathematics

Prof Clare Watt is a space plasma physicist who specializes in space weather at Earth. She leads projects to study the physics of Earth’s radiation belts through numerical simulation, analysis of spacecraft observations and theory.

She graduated with a PhD in space plasma physics from St Catharine’s College, Cambridge in 2002, during which time she created a new plasma simulation model at the British Antarctic Survey. Her work then took her to University of Alberta in Canada, where she created numerical models of acceleration of auroral electrons in polar regions. Clare’s focus is kinetic plasma physics as applied to space plasma environments. Largely this takes the form of wave-particle interactions, where charged particles in the collisionless environment of space interact with electromagnetic waves. This can result in energisation or scattering, and can be used to explain auroral processes, energisation of Earth’s radiation belts and even potentially the trigger for the explosive energy release in a magnetospheric substorm.

She has led large STFC Consolidated Grants (2015-2020) to study solar system physics, and is currently part of two large space weather consortia: Rad-Sat (2017-2021) which makes improvements to the modelling of acceleration, transport and loss of radiation belt electrons to protect satellites from space weather, and Sat-Risk (2020-2023) whose goal is to develop a real-time system to forecast radiation exposure to satellites for a range of different orbits, and quantify the risk of damage or degradation.

She currently serves on advisory groups for national and international space agencies, including the Human and Robotic Exploration Directorate of the European Space Agency, and the UK Space Agency. From 2017-2020 she was a Councillor and Trustee of the Royal Astronomical Society, and has served on the Science and Technology Facilities Council Astronomy Grants Panel.

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Research Themes and Scholarly Interests

I am a space plasma physics specialist with a keen interest in space weather. In short, this means I am interested in many aspects of Earth's space plasma environment: the magnetosphere, the Radiation Belts, substorms and more! Right now, I use my knowledge of kinetic space plasma physics, numerical modelling, and stochastic processes to consider the physics of Earth's outer radiation belt. This is a golden age of space plasma physics observations and I am excited to use the enormous NASA Van Allen Probes data sets to discover more about space weather for satellites.

I lead a small team who use numerical modelling, machine learning, and more traditional data analysis techniques to probe the mysteries of the high-energy environment in Earth's outer radiation belt. Please see Publications Page for latest publications.

Key Publications

Please visit the Pure Research Information Portal for further information
Diagnosing the Rapid Loss of Outer Radiation Belt Electrons Due To Strong Chorus-Driven Wave-Particle Interactions Along an Electron Injection Path, Chakraborty, S., Mann, I., Olifer, L., Black, R., Allanson, O., Rae, J., Godwin Ozeke, L., Watt, C. 2 Aug 2025, In: Journal of Geophysical Research: Space Physics
Estimating Electron Temperature and Density Using Van Allen Probe Data: Typical Behavior of Energetic Electrons in the Inner Magnetosphere, Rasinskaite, D., Watt, C., Forsyth, C., Smith, A., Lao, C., Chakraborty, S., Holmes, J., Delzanno, G. Apr 2025, In: Journal of Geophysical Research: Space Physics
Identifying Typical Relativistic Electron Pitch Angle Distributions: Evolution During Geomagnetic Storms, Killey, S., Rae, J., Smith, A., Bentley, S., Watt, C., Chakraborty, S., Ozeke, L., Walach, M., Sandhu, J., Rasinskaite, D. 16 Feb 2025, In: Geophysical Research Letters
Occurrence Rates and Variability of Whistler-Mode Waves in the Plasma Trough, Watt, C., Meredith, N., Wong, J., Murphy, K., Rae, I., Chakraborty, S., Bentley, S., Allanson, O., Rodger, C. Oct 2025, In: Journal of Geophysical Research: Space Physics
Severe Space Weather Impacts on UK Critical National Infrastructure, Allcock, M., Pidgeon, A., Black , G., Prestwood, E., Frayling, A., Cucaro, S., Lecky, W., Coxon, J., Smith, A., Bentley, S., Watt, C., Wicks, R., Rae, J. 1 Jan 2025
The Effect of Intense Chorus Waves on the Storm-Time Outer Radiation Belt Relativistic Electron Dynamics, Chakraborty, S., Watt, C., Rae, J., Mann, I., Olifer, L., Smith, A., Ripoll, J., Rodger, C. 19 Aug 2025, In: Journal of Geophysical Research: Space Physics
VAMPIRE: Using a Random Forest to Forecast Earth's Outer Van Allen Radiation Belt, Weston, D., Rae, I., Smith, A., Murphy, K., Watt, C., Bocquet, F., Bingham, S., Henley, E. Dec 2025, In: Space Weather
Effects of Plasma Density on the Spatial and Temporal Scale Sizes of Plasmaspheric Hiss, Zhang, S., Rae, I., Liu, K., Watt, C., Shi, Q., Tian, A., Degeling, A., Guo, R., Wang, M., Shen, X., Yao, F., Li, J. Mar 2024, In: Journal of Geophysical Research: Space Physics
How to be good to your brain, Watt, C., Rasinskaite, D. 1 Feb 2024, In: Astronomy and Geophysics
Statistical survey of pitch angle anisotropy of relativistic electrons in the outer radiation belt and its variation with solar wind/geomagnetic activity, Chakraborty, S., Rae, I., Killey, S., Ojha, B., Watt, C., Potts, C., Irving, E., Elliott, G., Johnson, K., Mohammed, N., Gupta, T., Slater, T., Liu, X., Cheng, Y. 19 Dec 2024, In: Frontiers in Astronomy and Space Sciences

Current and Recent Projects

Please visit the Pure Research Information Portal for further information
STFC Consolidated Grant for the Solar and Space Physics Group at Northumbria University, McLaughlin, J. (Principal Investigator), Watt, C. (Co Investigator), Science and Technologies Facilities Council, 01/04/23 - 31/03/26, £1,289,803.00

Professional Activity

Please visit the Pure Research Information Portal for further information
Membership of council: Council of Royal Astronomical Society (External organisation) 2022
Editorial work: Scientific Reports (Journal) 2022
Editorial work: Royal Astronomical Society Techniques and Instruments (Journal) 2022
Invited talk: Auroral Acceleration Mechanisms and how they relate to the Magnetospheric Substorm 2020
Examination: PhD viva examination at University of Leicester 2020
Membership of council: European Space Agency - ESA (External organisation) 2019
Membership of council: Council of Royal Astronomical Society (External organisation) 2017

PGR Supervision

Emily Grant Improving Diffusion Coefficient Models for whistler-mode Wave-Particle Interactions Start Date: 01/01/2024 End Date: 17/10/2025
Dovile Rasinskaite Characterisation of the Number Density and Temperature of Energetic Electrons in the Inner Magnetosphere Start Date: 01/06/2021 End Date: 17/10/2025
Emily Grant Improving Diffusion Coefficient Models for whistler-mode Chorus Wave-Particle Interactions Start Date: 01/01/2024
Dovile Rasinskaite Characterisation of the Number Density and Temperature of Energetic Electrons in the Inner Magnetosphere Start Date: 01/06/2021