Mall, Urs

Research Interests:

I am an experimental physicist working in the following fields:
•    Artificial Intelligence for surface landform identification
•    Cometary in-situ research
•    Remote sensing of planetary surfaces
•    Geologic/mineralogical laboratory analysis for remote sensing
•    Lunar exospheric studies
•    Solar and heliospheric physics, solar energetic particles, physics of space weather
•    Physics of the Earth’s magnetosphere, Jovian magnetosphere
•    Space plasma physics
•    Instrument design for development of space missions (mass spectrometry, electromagnetic calorimetry, construction of test facilities for the quantitative characterization of sensors in the spectral range 0.2 µm - 2.5 µm)

Education and Employment:

Since 1998: staff scientist, Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research (MPS), Göttingen (earlier: Max Planck Institute for Aeronomy (MPAE), Katlenburg-Lindau), Germany
1996 – 1998: research scholar (Forschungsstipendiat)of the Max Planck Society, MPAE, Katlenburg-Lindau, Germany
1995 – 1996: Research Fellow, University of Maryland, College Park, MD, USA
1993 – 1995: Research Fellow, University of Michigan, Dept. of Atmospheric, Oceanic, and Space Sciences, USA   
1990 – 1993: Assistent, University Bern, Switzerland
1982 – 1989: Assistent, University Basel, Switzerland
1985 – 1989: Ph.D. in Experimental Particle Physics, University Basel, Switzerland
1984: M.Sc. in Experimental Physics, University Basel, Switzerland   
1979 – 1982: B.Sc. in Physics, Mathematics and Astronomy, University Basel, Switzerland

Selected memberships in Space Projects:

Lead Co-Investigator ESA Mission Rosetta-RTOF Experiment, 2005 – 2018

ESA Mission Bepi-Colombo - Mercury Thermal Infrared Spectrometer (MERTIS) Experiment

Luna-Globe and Luna-Resource Lander, Lunar Infrared Spectrometer (LIS)

Lead Hardware Development teams for space instrumentation in NIR spectroscopy and mass spectrometry, 1998 - 2018

Principle Investigator (PI) of the SIR-2 Experiment on the Indian Mission to the Moon, Chandrayaan-1, 2005 – 2010

ESA Mission SMART-1 - Spectrometer InfraRed SIR - Experiment

NASA Mission STEREO - In-situ Measurements of PArticles and CME Transients (IMPACT) Experiment

NASA Mission WIND - WIND SWICS, MASS STICS (SMS) Suprathermal Instrument suite

Co-PI on ESA Mission, Cluster II for Research with Adaptive Particle Imaging Detectors (RAPID)

Co-I on Cluster I for Research with Adaptive Particle Imaging Detectors (RAPID)

ESA-NASA Ulysses deep-space mission to study the heliosphere using data from the Solar Wind Ion Composition Spectrometer (SWICS)

Selected Publications:

(1) S. S. Krasilnikov.; A.T. Basilevsky.; Yu. V.  Skorov.; U. Mall; J.W. Head; S.F. Hviid; H.U. Keller (2020), Pinnacles on the Nucleus of Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, (2020), Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, Volume 491, Issue 2, p.2664-2673.

(2) U. Mall, K. Altwegg, H. Balsiger, , A. Bar-Nun, J.-J. Berthelier, A. Bieler, P. Bochsler, C. Briois, U. Calmonte, M.R. Combi,  B. Dabrowski,  J. De Keyser, B. Fiethe, S.A. Fuselier, A. Galli, P. Garnier, S. Gasc, T.I. Gombosi, K.C. Hansen, M. Hässig, M. Hoang, A. Jäckel, E. Kopp, A. Korth, L. Le Roy, B. Marty, O. Mousis, T. Owen, H. Rème, M. Rubin, T. Sémon, C. Tzou, J.H. Waite, and P. Wurz (2016), High time resolution in-situ investigation of major cometary volatiles around 67P/C-G at 3.1 - 2.3 AU measured with ROSINA-RTOF, The Astrophysical Journal, Volume 819, Issue 2, article id. 126, 9 pp.  

(3) U. Mall, C.Wöhler, A.Grumpe, R.Bugiolacchi, M.Bhatt (2014), Characterization of lunar soils through spectral features extraction in the NIR, Advances in Space Research, Volume 54, Issue 10, p. 2029-2040.

(4) U. Mall, M. Banaszkiewicz, K.B. Brønstad, S. McKenna-Lawlor,  A. Nathues, F. Søraas ,E. Vilenius, K., Ullaland (2009), Near Infrared Spectrometer SIR-2 on Chandrayaan-1, Curr. Sci. 96 (4), 506–511.

(5) U. Mall;  S. Christon,; E.. Kirsch; G. Gloeckler (2002), On the solar cycle dependence of the N+/O+ content in the magnetosphere and its relation to atomic N and O in the Earth's exosphere, Geophysical Research Letters, Volume 29, Issue 12, pp. 34-1.

(6) U. Mall, K. Kirsch, K. Cierpka, B. Wilken, A. Söding,  F. Neubauer,  G. Gloeckler, A. Galvin (1998), Direct observation of lunar pick-up ions near the Moon, Geophysical Research Letters, Volume 25, Issue 20, p. 3799-3802.

(7) U. Mall, H. Fichtner, D.C. Hamilton, D. Rucinski (1996), Determination of the heliospheric axis orientation-An opportunity for the Cassini Mission to Saturn, Geophysical Research Letters, Volume 23, Issue 22, p. 3263-3266.

(8) Geiss, J.; Gloeckler, G.; Mall, U.; von Steiger, R.; Galvin, A. B.; Ogilvie, K. W. (1994), Interstellar oxygen, nitrogen and neon in the heliosphere, Astronomy and Astrophysics (ISSN 0004-6361), vol. 282, no. 3, p. 924-933.