Dr Natasha Jeffrey

My research studies solar flares, huge releases of energy in the Sun’s atmosphere. Solar flares provide us with an astrophysical laboratory for understanding processes such as magnetic reconnection and turbulence, and the production and properties of energetic particles. My work uses high energy observations (X-ray, EUV) to study flares and energetic particles at the Sun, and the creation of kinetic models to study particle acceleration and particle and X-ray transport effects in flares. 

My current list of publications can be found here.

My current CV (updated January 2022) can be found here.

I obtained my PhD in solar physics in 2014 at the University of Glasgow on the “Spatial, spectral and polarisation properties of solar flare X-ray sources” before becoming a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Glasgow. In 2019, I joined Northumbria University as a Vice-Chancellor Fellow/Lecturer.

I am currently the Chair of the UK Solar Physics council.

Between 2016 and 2018 I received the following prizes for my research: European Geophysical Union (EGU) Solar-­Terrestrial Early Career Researcher Prize, European Physical Society (EPS) Solar Physics Division (ESPD) Early Career Researcher Prize, and the EPS Plasma Physics Thesis Prize. 

Selected current (and previous) grants/awards:

UKRI Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC) Consolidated Grant (2024-26) for “Determining Solar Flare Hard X-ray Directivity using Stereoscopic Observations with Solar Orbiter/STIX” (£248,301). 

UKRI Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC) New Applicant Grant (2021-24) for “Exploring the connection between solar flare energetic electrons observed at the Sun and in the heliosphere” (£372,452). 

In 2019-2020 I also led International Space Science Institute (ISSI) Bern team “Solar flare acceleration signatures and their connection to solar energetic particles” with Dr Frederic Effenberger (Helmholtz Centre, Potsdam, Germany) with the aim to understand the connection between different populations of energetic particles produced at the Sun and in the heliosphere, and how they can be used to further our understanding of astrophysical plasma processes and astrophysical particle acceleration in general. 

• Please visit the Pure Research Information Portal for further information
• Exploring the Origin of Solar Energetic Electrons II: Investigating Turbulent Coronal Acceleration, Pallister, R., Jeffrey, N., Stores, M. 10 Apr 2025, In: Astrophysical Journal
• Tracing the heliospheric magnetic field via anisotropic radio-wave scattering, Clarkson, D., Kontar, E., Chrysaphi, N., Emslie, A., Jeffrey, N., Krupar, V., Vecchio, A. 2 Apr 2025, In: Scientific Reports
• A Modelling Investigation for Solar Flare X-ray Stereoscopy with Solar Orbiter/STIX and Earth Orbiting Missions, Jeffrey, N., Krucker, S., Stores, M., Kontar, E., Saint-Hilaire, P., Battaglia, A., Hayes, L., Collier, H., Veronig, A., Su, Y., Tadepalli, S., Xia, F. 1 Apr 2024, In: Astrophysical Journal
• First joint X-ray solar microflare observations with NuSTAR and Solar Orbiter/STIX, Bajnoková, N., Hannah, I., Cooper, K., Krucker, S., Grefenstette, B., Smith, D., Jeffrey, N., Duncan, J. 5 Sep 2024, In: Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
• Advances in 3D solar flare modelling, Druett, M., Jeffrey, N. 1 Oct 2023, In: Astronomy and Geophysics
• An Anisotropic Density Turbulence Model from the Sun to 1 au Derived from Radio Observations, Kontar, E., Emslie, A., Clarkson, D., Chen, X., Chrysaphi, N., Azzollini, F., Jeffrey, N., Gordovskyy, M. 1 Oct 2023, In: The Astrophysical Journal
• Exploring the Origin of Solar Energetic Electrons. I. Constraining the Properties of the Acceleration Region Plasma Environment, Pallister, R., Jeffrey, N. 20 Nov 2023, In: The Astrophysical Journal
• Source positions of an interplanetary type III radio burst and anisotropic radio-wave scattering, Chen, X., Kontar, E., Chrysaphi, N., Zhang, P., Krupar, V., Musset, S., Maksimovic, M., Jeffrey, N., Azzollini, F., Vecchio, A. Dec 2023, In: Astronomy and Astrophysics
• Spectral and Imaging Diagnostics of Spatially Extended Turbulent Electron Acceleration and Transport in Solar Flares, Stores, M., Jeffrey, N., McLaughlin, J. 29 Mar 2023, In: The Astrophysical Journal
• The existence of hot X-ray onsets in solar flares, Battaglia, A., Hudson, H., Warmuth, A., Collier, H., Jeffrey, N., Caspi, A., Dickson, E., Saqri, J., Purkhart, S., Veronig, A., Harra, L., Krucker, S. Nov 2023, In: Astronomy and Astrophysics

• 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), Jeffrey, N. (Co Investigator), Science and Technologies Facilities Council, 01/04/23 - 31/03/26, £1,289,803.00

Samuel Carter Constraining the processes that accelerate and transport solar flare energetic electrons from the Sun’s inner atmosphere to the Earth Start Date: 01/10/2023

• Physics PhD December 31 2014
• Fellow of the Higher Education Academy FHEA