Prof. Yohai Kaspi

Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Weizmann Institute for Science

Yohai Kaspi is a Professor of Atmospheric Dynamics at the Weizmann Institute of Science. He earned a BSc in Physics and Mathematics at the Hebrew University (2000), a MSc in Physics from the Weizmann Institute (2002) and a PhD in Geophysical Fluid Dynamics from MIT (2008). Following his PhD he spent three years as a postdoctoral fellow at Caltech, before joining the faculty of the Department of Earth and Planetary Science at the Weizmann Institute in 2011. He is a science team member of NASA’s Juno mission to Jupiter, NASA’s Cassini mission to Saturn and co-Principle Investigator for ESA’s JUICE mission to Jupiter. During 2017-2018 he is a Visiting Professor at Princeton University.
- Abstract: Prof. Kaspi's research interests include the dynamics of planetary atmospheres, with focus on those of Jupiter and Saturn, atmospheric turbulence, the general circulation of Earth’s atmosphere and oceans, dynamics of exoplanetry atmospheres, geophysical vortex dynamics, gravity science and atmospheric occultations. His main scientific contributions include determining the depth of Jupiter’s atmosphere using gravity measurements, determining Saturn’s rotation period, determining the depth of the jet-streams on Uranus and Neptune, explaining Earth’s observed turbulent energy spectrum, explaining atmospheric wave modes which control temperature differences across Earth's ocean basins and understanding the spatial structure of Earth’s storm tracks and their response to climate change. He is leading the radio occultation experiment for ESA’s JUICE mission to Jupiter and the development of the JUICE Ultra Stable Oscillator, the Israeli hardware contribution to the JUICE mission, to be launched to Jupiter in 2022.