Shibaji Chakraborty

Every major solar storm threatens the technology modern civilization runs on — HF radio communications, satellite navigation, and the submarine fiber-optic cables that carry 99% of the world's transcontinental internet traffic. My research sits at that intersection: I study how solar flares, geomagnetic superstorms, and solar eclipses reshape Earth's upper atmosphere, and I translate those observations into concrete risk estimates for the infrastructure wired into it.

As a Research Scientist at SAIL, Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, I use SuperDARN radar networks, satellite observations, physics-based models (WACCM-X, TIE-GCM), and machine learning to characterize ionospheric disturbances across a wide range of solar drivers. I build tools that make this science actionable: SCUBAS quantifies geomagnetically induced voltages in globally distributed submarine cable systems — validated against the 1989 and 2003 superstorm records — and pynasonde is an open-source Python library for processing ionosonde data from vertical sounders, now available to the broader space weather community. Both are supported by active funding from Google GARA and two NSF awards.

I hold a Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from Virginia Tech (2021) and spent five years in software R&D before academia — a background that keeps me focused on building tools that work, not just models that publish. My work has appeared in 35 peer-reviewed journals with 500+ citations.

• 2026

  Paper published: pynasonde: An open-source Python library for ionosonde data processing. SoftwareX, 34, 102617. [DOI]

• Mar 2026

  Paper published: Global impacts of ultra-low-frequency waves: 1. Thermospheric responses and traveling atmospheric disturbances. Geophysical Research Letters. [DOI]

• 2025

  Google Unrestricted Research Award (GARA): PI — “Quantifying Geomagnetically Induced Voltages in Global Submarine Cables Using the SCUBAS Model.”

• Mar 2025

  Paper published: Formation of the ionospheric G-condition following the 2017 Great American Eclipse. Earth and Space Science. [DOI]

• Jan 2025

  Paper published: Severe weather-generated acoustic and gravity wave impacts on the ionosphere. JGR Space Physics. [DOI]

• 2024

  NSF Award PI: Collaborative investigation of ionospheric density response to American solar eclipses (Award #2412294, 2024–2027).

• 2024

  NSF-GEM Award PI: Modeling ionospheric and magnetospheric current interactions with submarine cables (2024–2027).

• Sep 2024

  Joined Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University as Research Scientist in the SAIL group under Dr. Aroh Barjatya.

• 2022

  JSPS Fellowship: Japan Society for Promotion of Science Postdoctoral Fellowship (Short-term), ISEE — Nagoya University, Japan.

• 2021

  Best Paper: IEEE/WiSEE Best Conference Paper Award — Probabilistic Short-wave Fadeout Detection in SuperDARN Time Series.

• 1

  Chakraborty, S., Nishitani, N., et al. (2025). Solar Flare-Induced Gradient Drift Instability Observed by SuperDARN HF Radars. Journal of Geophysical Research: Space Physics.

  DOI
• 2

  Chakraborty, S., Qian, L., et al. (2025). Formation of the ionospheric G-condition following the 2017 Great American Eclipse. Earth and Space Science.

  DOI
• 3

  Chakraborty, S., et al. (2022). Modeling geomagnetic induction in submarine cables. Frontiers in Physics.

  DOI
• 4

  Chakraborty, S., et al. (2022). Driving influences of the Doppler flash observed by SuperDARN HF radars in response to solar flares. JGR Space Physics.

  DOI
• 5

  Chakraborty, S., et al. (2021). Ionospheric Sluggishness: A Characteristic Time-Lag of the Ionospheric Response to Solar Flares. JGR Space Physics.

  DOI

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