Amira Hussein

Early Life

By the age of 23, Amira had achieved her bachelor's and master's degrees. They were both gained in the Space Science Field at Helwan University, Egypt. Her projects included studying space weather, the Earth's upper atmosphere and computer programming. 

Once she had graduated, Amira then spent a year at Helwan University working as a teaching assistant.

Career Highlights

Amira has gained over ten years of work experience in the study of the effects of space weather on satellites. This career has been at the Egyptian Space Agency (EgSA). 

Amira started her career here in 2013 as a Space Science Specialist. In 2020, she was then made Space Environment Team Leader, a role she had for 3 years. Since 2023, Amira has been the Space Environment and Space Weather Department Director at EgSA. 

Amira's work has focused on space radiation and its impact on satellite materials and devices. Space radiation is one of the primary reasons for satellite operation failures and reduced lifetime. Amira's projects have aimed to gain more information on Earth's upper atmosphere and its interactions with space. This included collecting data on chemical reactions in Earth's upper atmosphere over Africa. The regions near the equator receive more heat from the Sun than the rest of the Earth because it is closer to the Sun. This results in these regions having more extreme effects and leads to unique processes in the atmosphere. Such as the creation of plasma bubbles that can affect radio waves in the atmosphere. 

Amira's work has also included computer modelling of this region in the Earth's upper atmosphere. This helps with the data shortage in this area of research.

Legacy

Amira's research is a key area of science because the behaviour of the Sun can impact many systems. This includes long-distance radio communication and GPS signals. 

A greater understanding of processes in Earth's upper atmosphere is needed. This can help predict and reduce the effects caused by space weather.