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Solar and Space Physics: A Science for a Technological Society
384
SOLAR AND SPACE PHYSICS: A SCIENCE FOR A TECHNOLOGICAL SOCIETY
MARY K. HUDSON is the Eleanor and A. Kelvin Smith Distinguished Professor of Physics and served for
8 years as chair of physics and astronomy at Dartmouth College. Dr. Hudson has served as one of the
principal investigators with the NSF-funded Center for Integrated Space Weather Modeling (CISM), where
researchers study the weather patterns that originate from a solar eruption, following the energy and mass
transfer through the interplanetary medium, all the way to Earth’s ionosphere. Current areas of investigation include the evolution of the radiation belts; how the ionized particle outflow known as the solar wind
and the magnetic field of the Sun interact with the magnetic field of Earth, producing electrical currents
in the ionosphere; and the effects of solar cosmic rays on radio communications near Earth’s poles. Dr.
Hudson is also funded by NASA’s Supporting Research and Technology program, studying related effects of
Earth’s space radiation environment that can affect both astronaut safety and satellite systems. Along with
her students and postdoctoral research staff, she is modeling sudden changes in relativistic electron fluxes
and solar cosmic rays at and inside the 24-hour orbital period of many communication and navigation
satellites, and effects of global oscillations of Earth’s magnetic field, associated with changes in solar wind
conditions that have their origins at the Sun. Dr. Hudson received her Ph.D. in physics from UCLA. She
has served as chair of the NSF Geospace Environment Modeling program and is funded for research in that
program on geomagnetic storms. Dr. Hudson was the vice chair of the NRC’s 2003 Panel on AtmosphereIonosphere-Magnetosphere Interactions and a member of the Committee on Solar and Space Physics and
the Plasma Science Committee.
DAVID L. HYSELL is a professor in the Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences at Cornell University.
As a graduate student there, he worked as a postdoctoral researcher in space plasma physics. He has also
worked at Clemson University as an associate professor in the physics department. Dr. Hysell’s research
interests are in the area of upper atmospheric physics, space plasmas, and radar remote sensing. His
research also focuses on theoretical and experimental investigations of space plasmas in Earth’s ionosphere
between 80 and 1500 km altitude. Dr. Hysell has designed and built a number of small, portable coherent scatter radars for studying plasma instabilities and irregularities in Earth’s ionosphere at low, middle,
and high latitudes. He uses these radars and radar interferometry and imaging techniques similar to those
applied in radio astronomy and medicine, to observe the growth, propagation, and decay of ionospheric
plasma irregularities in three spatial dimensions and in time. He received his Ph.D. in physics from Cornell University. His NRC committee experience includes serving on the U.S. National Committee for the
International Union of Radio Science.
THOMAS J. IMMEL is an associate research physicist and senior fellow at the Space Sciences Laboratory
at UC Berkeley. His expertise lies in interpretation of remote-sensing data and modeling of physical processes in the upper atmosphere and ionosphere. Dr. Immel’s work has included ultraviolet imaging observations from four NASA missions: Dynamics Explorer, Polar, Imager for Magnetopause-to-Aurora Global
Exploration (IMAGE), and Thermosphere-Ionosphere-Mesosphere Energetics and Dynamics (TIMED). His
research efforts have extended out from the upper atmosphere and ionosphere to understand auroral and
inner magnetospheric dynamical processes and have also focused on the upward coupling of energy and
momentum from the lower atmosphere and the subsequent modification of conditions in the space environment. Dr. Immel received his Ph.D. in physics from the University of Alaska, Fairbanks. He served on
the NASA 2009 Heliophysics Roadmap Team and is currently serving on the NSF CEDAR Science Steering
Committee and the NASA Geospace Mission Operations Working Group.
JUSTIN KASPER is an astrophysicist in the Solar and Stellar X-Ray Group in the High Energy Astrophysics
Division of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics and is a lecturer in the Department of Astron-
Solar and Space Physics: A Science for a Technological Society
384
SOLAR AND SPACE PHYSICS: A SCIENCE FOR A TECHNOLOGICAL SOCIETY
MARY K. HUDSON is the Eleanor and A. Kelvin Smith Distinguished Professor of Physics and served for
8 years as chair of physics and astronomy at Dartmouth College. Dr. Hudson has served as one of the
principal investigators with the NSF-funded Center for Integrated Space Weather Modeling (CISM), where
researchers study the weather patterns that originate from a solar eruption, following the energy and mass
transfer through the interplanetary medium, all the way to Earth’s ionosphere. Current areas of investigation include the evolution of the radiation belts; how the ionized particle outflow known as the solar wind
and the magnetic field of the Sun interact with the magnetic field of Earth, producing electrical currents
in the ionosphere; and the effects of solar cosmic rays on radio communications near Earth’s poles. Dr.
Hudson is also funded by NASA’s Supporting Research and Technology program, studying related effects of
Earth’s space radiation environment that can affect both astronaut safety and satellite systems. Along with
her students and postdoctoral research staff, she is modeling sudden changes in relativistic electron fluxes
and solar cosmic rays at and inside the 24-hour orbital period of many communication and navigation
satellites, and effects of global oscillations of Earth’s magnetic field, associated with changes in solar wind
conditions that have their origins at the Sun. Dr. Hudson received her Ph.D. in physics from UCLA. She
has served as chair of the NSF Geospace Environment Modeling program and is funded for research in that
program on geomagnetic storms. Dr. Hudson was the vice chair of the NRC’s 2003 Panel on AtmosphereIonosphere-Magnetosphere Interactions and a member of the Committee on Solar and Space Physics and
the Plasma Science Committee.
DAVID L. HYSELL is a professor in the Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences at Cornell University.
As a graduate student there, he worked as a postdoctoral researcher in space plasma physics. He has also
worked at Clemson University as an associate professor in the physics department. Dr. Hysell’s research
interests are in the area of upper atmospheric physics, space plasmas, and radar remote sensing. His
research also focuses on theoretical and experimental investigations of space plasmas in Earth’s ionosphere
between 80 and 1500 km altitude. Dr. Hysell has designed and built a number of small, portable coherent scatter radars for studying plasma instabilities and irregularities in Earth’s ionosphere at low, middle,
and high latitudes. He uses these radars and radar interferometry and imaging techniques similar to those
applied in radio astronomy and medicine, to observe the growth, propagation, and decay of ionospheric
plasma irregularities in three spatial dimensions and in time. He received his Ph.D. in physics from Cornell University. His NRC committee experience includes serving on the U.S. National Committee for the
International Union of Radio Science.
THOMAS J. IMMEL is an associate research physicist and senior fellow at the Space Sciences Laboratory
at UC Berkeley. His expertise lies in interpretation of remote-sensing data and modeling of physical processes in the upper atmosphere and ionosphere. Dr. Immel’s work has included ultraviolet imaging observations from four NASA missions: Dynamics Explorer, Polar, Imager for Magnetopause-to-Aurora Global
Exploration (IMAGE), and Thermosphere-Ionosphere-Mesosphere Energetics and Dynamics (TIMED). His
research efforts have extended out from the upper atmosphere and ionosphere to understand auroral and
inner magnetospheric dynamical processes and have also focused on the upward coupling of energy and
momentum from the lower atmosphere and the subsequent modification of conditions in the space environment. Dr. Immel received his Ph.D. in physics from the University of Alaska, Fairbanks. He served on
the NASA 2009 Heliophysics Roadmap Team and is currently serving on the NSF CEDAR Science Steering
Committee and the NASA Geospace Mission Operations Working Group.
JUSTIN KASPER is an astrophysicist in the Solar and Stellar X-Ray Group in the High Energy Astrophysics
Division of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics and is a lecturer in the Department of Astron-