About Me
Welcome. I am a researcher at the University of Bergen, Norway, specializing in High Energy Atmospheric Physics. I received my PhD from the University of Toulouse in 2015 and worked as a postdoc at the University of Paris Diderot on the TARANIS spacecraft. I moved to Bergen as a postdoc in 2017, then earned a permanent researcher position in 2020.
My research focuses on high-energy phenomena from thunderstorms: Terrestrial Gamma-Ray Flashes (TGFs), Gamma-Ray Glows, and Terrestrial Electron Beams. I also contribute to the calibration of the ASIM instrument on the International Space Station. My latest instrumental focus is the development of a new gamma-ray pinhole camera to resolve the spatial extent of gamma-ray glows for the upcoming 2028 ENLIGHTEN flight campaign.
TGFs are intense sub-millisecond bursts of gamma rays from thunderstorms, reaching energies up to 40 MeV. Gamma-Ray Glows are weaker but longer-lived emissions (seconds to minutes). Terrestrial Electron Beams are high-energy electron streams produced alongside TGFs, detectable by satellites like Fermi, ASIM, and AGILE.
In 2023, I participated in the ALOFT flight campaign, flying at 20 km altitude over Caribbean thunderstorms. We discovered Flickering Gamma-Ray Flashes (FGFs), a new phenomenon published in Nature (2024). FGFs are "the missing link" between glows and TGFs: they last 20-250 ms with multiple pulses, but unlike TGFs, they are radio and optically silent, which is quite puzzling.
In my recent 2025 JGR Atmospheres paper, I performed a spectral analysis of 24 FGFs detected during ALOFT, showing they are consistent with the Relativistic Runaway Electron Avalanche process, producing gamma-rays up to 40 MeV at 8-16 km altitude.
I also lead the Norwegian Research Council project "What makes Flickering Gamma-ray Flashes Flicker?" From 2025-2029, funded with 11.7M NOK, investigating FGF mechanisms through multi-platform observations and computer simulations. My colleagues and I are looking forward to the new ENLIGHTEN flight campaign coming up in 2028.
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