Personal Info

E-mail: irwin(at)atm.ox.ac.uk

Tel: 01865 274879

Web Link: http://www.atm.ox.ac.uk/user/irwin 

Academic Background:
Physics undergraduate at Keble College, Oxford (1984-87); DPhil in Physics (Keble College, Oxford, 1987-91); Systems Analyst with Logical Space and Communications (1991-92); Post-Doctoral Research Assistant in Atmospheric, Oceanic and Planetary Physics (Department of Physics, University of Oxford, 1992-96); University Lecturer and Tutorial Fellow of St Anne’s College (1996-2006); Reader in Physics and Tutorial Fellow of St Anne’s College (2006-present).

Teaching Interests:
Undergraduate: Mathematics, electromagnetism, thermodynamics, statistical mechanics, optics, atmospheric physics and comparative planetology.

Graduate: Observation of planetary atmospheres with spacecraft and ground-based telescopes and atmospheric radiative transfer and retrieval modelling.

Research Interests:
My research focuses on observing and understanding the atmospheres of the other planets in our solar system. Our observations are made with interplanetary spacecraft and also ground-based telescopes, observing at infrared wavelengths where the temperature and composition of these planetary atmospheres can be determined though modelling the various radiative transfer processes. These observations are used both to understand how the different planetary atmospheres formed and also to compare the dynamical and chemical processes acting in all planetary atmospheres to gain a better insight into the atmospheric physics of the Earth’s atmosphere.

Selected Publications:
P.G.J. Irwin, R. de Kok, A. Negrão, C.C.C. Tsang, C.F. Wilson, P. Drossart, G. Piccioni, D. Grassi, F.W. Taylor, and Venus Express/VIRTIS team, ‘Spatial variability of carbon monoxide in Venus’ mesosphere from Venus Express/VIRTIS measurements’, J.Geophys.Res. (in press)
Fletcher, L. N., P.G.J. Irwin, G.S. Orton, N.A. Teanby, R.K. Achterberg, G.L. Bjoraker, P.L. Read, A.A. Simon-Miller, C. Howett, R. de Kok, N. Bowles, S.B. Calcutt, B. Hesman and F.M. Flasar, ‘Temperature and Composition of Saturn’s Polar Hot Spots and Hexagon’, Science, 319 (2008), 79
P.G.J. Irwin, N.A. Teanby, R. de Kok, L.N. Fletcher, C.J.A. Howett, C.C.C. Tsang, C.F. Wilson, S.B. Calcutt, C.A. Nixon, P.D. Parrish, ‘The NEMESIS planetary atmosphere radiative transfer and retrieval tool’, J. Quant. Spectrosc. and Rad. Trans., 109 (2008), 1136-50
P.G.J. Irwin, N.A. Teanby and G. R. Davis, ‘Latitudinal Variations in Uranus’ Vertical Cloud Structure from UKIRT UIST Observations’, Astrophys. J., 665 (2007), L71-L74
P.G.J. Irwin, L.A. Sromovsky, E.K. Strong, K. Sihra, N.A. Teanby, N. Bowles, S.B. Calcutt and J.J. Remedios, ‘Improved near-infrared methane band models and k-distribution parameters from 2000 to 9500 cm-1 and implications for interpretation of outer planet spectra’, Icarus, 181 (2006), 309-19 
P.G.J. Irwin, P. Parrish, T. Fouchet, S.B Calcutt, F.W. Taylor, A.A. Simon-Miller and .A. Nixon, ‘Retrievals of Jovian tropospheric phosphine from Cassini/CIRS’, Icarus, 172 (2004), 37-49
F. W. Taylor, S.K. Atreya, Th. Encrenaz, D.M. Hunten, P.G.J. Irwin and T.C. Owen, ‘The composition of the atmosphere of Jupiter’, in F. Bagenal, T.E. Dowling and W.B. McKinnon (eds.), Jupiter, 2004
P.G.J. Irwin, Atmospheres of the Giant Planets: Atmospheres, Composition and Structure, 2003
P.G.J. Irwin and U. Dyudina, ‘The retrieval of cloud structure maps in the Equatorial region of Jupiter using a principal component analysis of Galileo/NIMS data’, Icarus, 156 (2002), 52-63