{"id":9,"date":"2021-10-12T21:45:39","date_gmt":"2021-10-12T21:45:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/atmos.ucla.edu\/space\/?page_id=9"},"modified":"2026-09-10T20:33:23","modified_gmt":"2026-09-10T20:33:23","slug":"front-page","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/atmos.ucla.edu\/space\/","title":{"rendered":"Home"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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UCLA Space Physics & AI Lab<\/p>\n

Physics for an intelligent space age.<\/h2>\n

We investigate how plasma waves and particles shape near-Earth space, translate that physics into space-weather capability, and develop AI that accelerates scientific discovery.<\/p>\n

Research<\/a> Our people<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n
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\"Space<\/div>\n

At a glance<\/p>

Plasma physics \u00b7 Space weather \u00b7 AI for science<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Research<\/p>

One program, three connected directions.<\/h2>\n<\/div>\n\n\n
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Explore all research \u2192<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

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01 \/ Discover<\/p>

Fundamental space physics<\/h3>

We study wave\u2013particle interactions, plasma-wave excitation and propagation, and the processes that organize energetic particles throughout near-Earth space.<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

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02 \/ Predict<\/p>

Applied space weather<\/h3>

We turn physical insight, spacecraft observations, and numerical models into better ways to understand and predict the dynamic space environment.<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

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03 \/ Learn<\/p>

AI for physical science<\/h3>

We develop machine-learning methods that reveal patterns, recover governing physics, and help scientists reason across large and complex datasets.<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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What we\u2019re working on now<\/p>

Questions in motion.<\/h2>

Current projects span plasma populations, magnetospheric structure, and AI-assisted discovery.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Cold ions & system coupling<\/h3>

We are investigating the dynamics of cold ions and, in parallel, the processes that connect the magnetosphere and ionosphere.<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

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A data-driven plasma sheet<\/h3>

GEOTAIL and THEMIS observations are being combined with machine learning to characterize plasma-sheet structure and variability.<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

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Chorus & equation discovery<\/h3>

We are studying chorus source-region characteristics and using AI to discover governing partial differential equations from physical data.<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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\"Members<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n
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Our people<\/p>

A collaborative lab built around hard questions.<\/h2>

Principal investigator<\/strong>
Jacob Bortnik<\/p>

Researchers<\/strong>
Qianli Ma \u00b7 Homayon Aryan \u00b7 Ning Kang \u00b7 Sheng Tian<\/p>

Graduate students<\/strong>
Dominique Stumbaugh \u00b7 Ryoma Matsuura \u00b7 Jose Espinoza \u00b7 Qiushuo Wang \u00b7 Reiniery Villalta<\/p>Meet everyone<\/a>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Publications<\/p>

Ideas tested in the literature.<\/h2>

Explore recent papers spanning plasma waves, energetic-particle dynamics, space weather, numerical modeling, and machine learning for physical science.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

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View publications<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

UCLA Space Physics & AI Lab Physics for an intelligent space age. We investigate how plasma waves and particles shape<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"front-page-no-banner.php","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/atmos.ucla.edu\/space\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/9","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/atmos.ucla.edu\/space\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/atmos.ucla.edu\/space\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atmos.ucla.edu\/space\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atmos.ucla.edu\/space\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9"}],"version-history":[{"count":90,"href":"https:\/\/atmos.ucla.edu\/space\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/9\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":576,"href":"https:\/\/atmos.ucla.edu\/space\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/9\/revisions\/576"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/atmos.ucla.edu\/space\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atmos.ucla.edu\/space\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atmos.ucla.edu\/space\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}