MissSanjeevani Panditharatne

Sanjeevani Panditharatne is a PhD student in the Space and Atmospheric Physics Group in the Department of Physics, Imperial College London, alongside RAL Space. She is also affiliated with the Science and Solutions for a Changing Planet Doctoral Training Partnership at the Grantham Insititute for Climate Change and the Environment. Her project, supervised by Dr. Caroline Cox and Prof. Helen Brindely, explores how the Earth is losing its cool in support of the ESA FORUM satellite mission.

Theoretical models suggest over half of the radiation emitted by Earth back to space is in the far-infrared range, at wavelengths greater than 15µm. This spectral region is strongly influenced by water vapour, clouds, and high latitude surface properties linked to key climate feedbacks. This project hopes to particularly focus on the role of cirrus - high ice clouds - in the climate system, using optimal estimation schemes developed at RAL to retrieve cloud properties from unique airborne measurements.

Sanjeevani is the Communications Officer for the Grantham Institute's Education Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Committee, and the Chair of the NERC 2022 Joint DTP Conference Committee.

Prior to joining Imperial, Sanjeevani completed an Integrated MSc in Chemical Physics at the University of Bristol. Her dissertation, supervised by Dr. Zoë Leinhardt and Dr. Will Seviour explored the influence of obliquity on Martian surface conditions and the implications for habitability.

Publications
• M. Khan, R. Holland, A. Foulds, J. C. Matthews, S. Panditharatne et al (Oct. 2020). “Investigating the background and local contribution of the oxidants in London and Bangkok”. In: Faraday Discussions. // DOI

• G. Wan, S. Panditharatne, N. A. Fox and M. Cattelan (July 2020). “Graphene-diamond junction photoemission microscopy and electronic interactions”. In: Nano Express 1.2. // DOI