 |
Mark Miesch
Contact 303-497-1582
miesch@ucar.edu Area of expertise Sun and Upper Atmosphere
Specialties astrophysical fluid dynamics and magnetohydrodynamics, the interior of the Sun and other stars, solar differential rotation, and high-performance computing Dr. Mark Miesch is a Scientist I in the High Altitude Observatory of the National Center for Atmospheric Research. His main research focus is solar and stellar convection, magnetohydrodynamics, turbulence, and dynamo theory with an emphasis on numerical modeling. Miesch studies the internal dynamics of stars, with particular emphasis on the Sun. Stellar interiors seethe with turbulent convection, magnetism, and shear (differential rotation) which together give rise to patterns of variability such as the 11-year sunspot cycle. Miesch confronts this complexity head-on with the help of high-resolution simulations on massively parallel supercomputers. Such simulations have provided unprecedented insights into the global-scale structure of solar and stellar convection, the origins of differential rotation (why does the Sun's equator spin faster than its poles?) and meridional circulation, and how stars build magnetic fields. He received his PhD in Astrophysics in 1998 from the University of Colorado, Boulder. His first position with HAO was as an ASP Post Doc in 2001. |