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Meet: Barbara Thompson
Space Physicist
Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD
My Education
I graduated from the University of Pennsylvania in 1991 with degrees in Physics
and Mathematics. I moved on to the University of Minnesota, where I wanted to
pursue my doctoral degree studying high energy physics. I became interested in
space physics when I met my future thesis adviser, Bob Lysak. I stayed in Minneapolis
until spring 1996, where I finished my thesis work, and ran, rollerbladed, and
played ultimate frisbee to entertain myself in the summer. In the winter it was
very cold - I tried to keep running and playing frisbee, but mostly I read books.
I had a very interesting thesis project - I was trying
to determine how electromagnetic waves in the Earth's magnetic field (magnetosphere)
energized particles in near-Earth space. The most observable effect of this process
is the aurora borealis, or northern lights. My thesis title was "The Role of Inertial
Alfven Waves in Auroral Particle Acceleration."
I had developed a real love of magnetic field phenomena,
and in the fall 1995 the SOHO spacecraft was launched. The Solar and Heliospheric
Observatory, or SOHO, has 12 instruments, all dedicated to the study of the Sun.
If you are interested in magnetic fields, the Sun's the place to be - most of
the Sun's atmosphere is dominated by magnetic fields. SOHO was developed by the
European Space Agency and NASA, and was a major effort for all the people involved.
When I finished my Ph.D., I gladly took a job at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center
to work with SOHO.
What I do now
I stayed in the SOHO job until spring 1998, when I got a job working for the Solar
Physics Branch here at NASA. It wasn't much of a job change - my office, email
address, and phone number all stayed the same, but the new job allowed me to work
on upcoming projects in addition to SOHO. Almost immediately I began working on
the Solar Extreme Ultraviolet Rocket Telescope Spectrograph (SERTS), the most
sensitive solar spectrometer in existence. SERTS is an ongoing rocket program
and will embark upon its ninth flight this June.
What Interests me
My scientific interests center around the understanding of the Sun's corona -
its extended and highly magnetized atmosphere. I became interested in coronal
mass ejections (CMEs - if you work for NASA you have to make acronyms!) and have
continued to focus on what drives these enormous eruptions of material from the
Sun. In particular, some of the eruptions hit Earth and influence near-Earth space.
This study, called "Space Weather," has also absorbed some of my interest. I am
also interested in the "normal" Sun, or the static corona. Until we understand
the nature of the Sun when it's dormant, we will never truly understand its eruptive
states.
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