Christopher John Scott (né Davis) is a British scientist and professor of space and atmospheric physics at the

University of Reading The University of Reading is a public research university in Reading, Berkshire, England. It was founded in 1892 as the University Extension College, Reading, an extension college of Christchurch College, Oxford, and became University College, ...

. His research focuses on the boundary and links between the atmosphere and space. He is the former project scientist for the Heliospheric Imager instruments on

NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agencies of the United States government, independent agency of the federal government of the United States, US federal government responsible for the United States ...

's twin

STEREO Stereophonic sound, commonly shortened to stereo, is a method of sound reproduction that recreates a multi-directional, 3-dimensional audible perspective. This is usually achieved by using two independent audio channels through a configurat ...

spacecraft.

Education and research career

Scott attended Brockenhust College, before completing a BSc in Physics with Planetary & Space Physics at

Aberystwyth University Aberystwyth University () is a Public university, public Research university, research university in Aberystwyth, Wales. Aberystwyth was a founding member institution of the former federal University of Wales. The university has over 8,000 stude ...

in 1989. He was awarded a PhD in upper atmosphere and auroral physics at the

University of Southampton The University of Southampton (abbreviated as ''Soton'' in post-nominal letters) is a public university, public research university in Southampton, England. Southampton is a founding member of the Russell Group of research-intensive universit ...

in 1993. After his PhD, he moved to the

Rutherford Appleton Laboratory The Rutherford Appleton Laboratory (RAL) is one of the national scientific research laboratories in the UK operated by the Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC). It began as the Rutherford High Energy Laboratory, merged with the At ...

, initially to support the

EISCAT EISCAT (European Incoherent Scatter Scientific Association) operates three incoherent scatter radar systems in Northern Scandinavia and Svalbard. The facilities are used to study the interaction between the Sun and the Earth as revealed by dist ...

ionospheric radar, before taking up a number of research posts, including project scientist for the Heliospheric Imagers on the twin

spacecraft. At the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, Scott worked closely with Richard Harrison and Mike Lockwood. In 2010, Scott moved to the

Research highlights

Scott's primary research focus is on the

ionosphere The ionosphere () is the ionized part of the upper atmosphere of Earth, from about to above sea level, a region that includes the thermosphere and parts of the mesosphere and exosphere. The ionosphere is ionized by solar radiation. It plays ...

, particularly perturbations from below by atmospheric phenomenon. Scott was the first scientist to demonstrate

lightning Lightning is a natural phenomenon consisting of electrostatic discharges occurring through the atmosphere between two electrically charged regions. One or both regions are within the atmosphere, with the second region sometimes occurring on ...

effects on the ' sporadic E' layer; transient, localized patches of relatively high electron density in the mid-ionosphere, which significantly affect radio-wave propagation. He subsequently investigated the relation between

occurrence and magnetic structures in the

solar wind The solar wind is a stream of charged particles released from the Sun's outermost atmospheric layer, the Stellar corona, corona. This Plasma (physics), plasma mostly consists of electrons, protons and alpha particles with kinetic energy betwee ...

. Scott has also used novel datasets to study how pressure waves from the lower atmosphere can lead to disturbances in the ionosphere, most notably using records of the London

Blitz Blitz, German for "lightning", may refer to: Military uses *Blitzkrieg, blitz campaign, or blitz, a type of military campaign *The Blitz, the German aerial campaign against Britain in the Second World War *, several ships of the Prussian, Imperia ...

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

bombing raids and ionospheric measurements from

Slough Slough () is a town in Berkshire, England, in the Thames Valley, west of central London and north-east of Reading, at the intersection of the M4, M40 and M25 motorways. It is part of the historic county of Buckinghamshire. In 2021, the ...

. Using the Heliospheric Imager instruments on the

spacecraft, Scott made the first observations of a solar eruption tracked continuously from the Sun to the Earth.

Public outreach and citizen science

Scott is actively involved in the public communication and promotion of science. He has made numerous appearances on TV and radio, most notably the BBC’s Sky at Night,

Newsnight ''Newsnight'' is the BBC's news and current affairs programme, providing in-depth investigation and analysis of the stories behind the day's headlines. It is broadcast weeknights at 10:30 on BBC Two and the BBC News channel; it is also avail ...

BBC Radio 4 BBC Radio 4 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC. The station replaced the BBC Home Service on 30 September 1967 and broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes from the BBC's headquarters at Broadcasti ...

’s Today programme, BBC2's James May's Man Lab, ITN news, and the

Discovery Channel Discovery Channel, known as The Discovery Channel from 1985 to 1995, and often referred to as simply Discovery, is an American cable channel that is best known for its ongoing reality television shows and promotion of pseudoscience. It init ...

. He was science adviser for episode 1 of the BBC series ‘Seven Wonders of the Solar System’ Scott is the co-founder of the

citizen science The term citizen science (synonymous to terms like community science, crowd science, crowd-sourced science, civic science, participatory monitoring, or volunteer monitoring) is research conducted with participation from the general public, or am ...

Solar Stormwatch
project, to track solar eruptions in heliospheric imager data.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Scott, Christopher Living people British space scientists Alumni of Aberystwyth University Alumni of the University of Southampton Year of birth missing (living people) Academics of the University of Reading