Wikipedia

Carrie Anderson

Carrie Anderson is an American planetary scientist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center.[1]

Carrie M. Anderson
Carrie Anderson
Born
Phoenix, Arizona
Alma materArizona State University
New Mexico State University
Scientific career
FieldsPlanetary atmospheres
InstitutionsGoddard Space Flight Center

Education

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Anderson is from Arizona.[2] She earned a Bachelors in physics from Arizona State University in 2000.[2] She moved to the New Mexico State University for her doctoral studies and graduated in 2006.[3] Upon graduation she became a NASA Postdoctoral Fellow.[4]

Career

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Anderson is a planetary astronomer in the Astrochemistry Laboratory at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, having joined NASA as a civil servant in 2009. She served as the Associate Chief of the Planetary Systems Laboratory from 2011 to 2016.[2]

Anderson's scientific research focuses on the remote sensing of planetary atmospheres,[5] primarily in the areas of thermal structure and composition, using space- and ground-based data. Her earliest scientific work focused on the exosphere of Mercury (planet).[6] She now performs radiative transfer analyses of the outer planets, including the effects of aerosols and condensates, as well as data analysis techniques in the visible, near-IR, mid-IR, far-IR, and submillimeter spectral regions. Anderson's research also includes transmission spectroscopy measurements of thin ice films using her SPECtroscopy of Titan-Related ice AnaLogs (SPECTRAL) high-vacuum chamber located in her Spectroscopy for Planetary ICes Environments (SPICE) laboratory.[citation needed]

Anderson's more recent research concerns the atmosphere of Saturn's moon Titan, which is, according to NASA, "a model for what the early Earth might have been like."[7] Titan has a thick, nitrogen-dominated atmosphere and is the only world in the solar system other than Earth known to possess stable liquid on its surface." (Titan's seas are not water, however, but methane and ethane.)[8]

In 2015, Anderson reported her discovery of a chemically new, high-altitude ice cloud residing in Titan's south polar stratosphere during Titan's early southern winter season, chemically consistent with co-condensed hydrogen cyanide and benzene.[9][10][11] During her 12-year tenure on the Cassini Composite InfraRed Spectrometer (CIRS)[12] team, Anderson also discovered additional ice clouds in Titan's stratosphere, including a co-condensed ice mixture containing hydrogen cyanide and cyanoacetylene, methane ice clouds formed via subsidence in Titan's lower stratosphere,[13] the solid-state photochemical formation of dicyanoacetylene ice – co-condensed with hydrogen cyanide ice, in Titan's early northern spring stratosphere, as well as the discovery that Titan's photochemical aerosol is chemically uniform throughout the atmosphere at altitudes below the stratopause.[14][15] Anderson has been heavily engaged in operations of the Cassini-Huygens mission in the Saturn system.[16]

Anderson is currently the Deputy Principal Investigator (DPI) on a submillimeter heterodyne spectrometer, aimed at a mission proposal concept to Enceladus. She is also DPI of a joint GSFC/JPL SmallSat mission concept to Venus, with a submillimeter heterodyne spectrometer as the primary instrument. She is also actively engaged in mission design concepts for planetary flight mission opportunities as well as projects involving submillimeter heterodyne spectrometer designs for future planetary flight missions.[citation needed]

Anderson is a member of the American Geophysical Union and the American Astronomical Society's Division for Planetary Sciences.[citation needed]

Honors and awards

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References

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  1. ^ "Women Scientists: Women in Astronomy conference and Two Women Astronomers Discussing Their Work". youtube.com. Retrieved 2018-06-04.
  2. ^ a b c d "Bio - Carrie M. Anderson". science.gsfc.nasa.gov. Retrieved 2018-05-05.  This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.
  3. ^ "NMSU Astronomy Alumni". astronomy.nmsu.edu. Archived from the original on 2018-07-28. Retrieved 2018-06-04.
  4. ^ "NASA Postdoctoral Program Former Fellows". usra.edu. Archived from the original on 2018-09-22. Retrieved 2018-06-04.
  5. ^ "Google scholar profile: Carrie M. Anderson". Google Scholar. Retrieved 2018-06-04.
  6. ^ Killen, R. M; Potter, A. E; Reiff, P; Sarantos, M; Jackson, B. V; Hick, P; Giles, B (2001). "Evidence of Space Weather at Mercury". Journal of Geophysical Research: Planets. 106 (E9): 20509 access–date=2018–05–07. Bibcode:2001JGR...10620509K. doi:10.1029/2000JE001401.
  7. ^ "Taking on Titan: An Interview With Carrie Anderson". NASA. December 16, 2010. Retrieved June 26, 2018. Now, as a space scientist at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Carrie studies the atmosphere on Titan, one of Saturn's moons and the second largest moon in the solar system. Titan is also a model for what the early Earth might have been like. To learn about Titan, she uses an instrument on the Cassini spacecraft called CIRS.
  8. ^ Redd, Nola Taylor (November 20, 2015). "Gigantic Ice Cloud Spotted on Saturn Moon Titan". Scientific American. Retrieved June 26, 2018. The newly spotted feature—part of a cloud system known as the south polar vortex—suggests that winter in the southern hemisphere of Titan will be even colder than predicted, scientists said. The atmospheric signal "looks pretty normal, then BOOM!, increases," indicating the presence of a brand-new cloud, said Cassini participating scientist Carrie Anderson, of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland.
  9. ^ "NASA scientists find noxious ice cloud on Saturn's moon Titan". NASA. 18 October 2017. Retrieved 2018-05-05.
  10. ^ Anderson, C. M; Samuelson, R. E; Yung, Y. L; McLain, J. L (2016). "Solid-state photochemistry as a formation mechanism for Titan's stratospheric C4N2 ice clouds" (PDF). Geophysical Research Letters. 43 (7): 3088. Bibcode:2016GeoRL..43.3088A. doi:10.1002/2016GL067795. S2CID 33164593.
  11. ^ "Toxic Cloud found in Titan's Stratosphere". sci-news.com. 19 October 2017. Retrieved 2018-05-07.
  12. ^ "Composite Infrared Spectrometer (CIRS)". saturn.jpl.nasa.gov. Retrieved 2018-05-06.
  13. ^ Anderson, C.M; Samuelson, R.E; Achterberg, R.K; Barnes, J.W; Flasar, F.M (2014). "Subsidence-Induced Methane Clouds in Titan's Winter Polar Stratosphere and Upper Troposphere". Icarus. 243: 129–138. Bibcode:2014Icar..243..129A. doi:10.1016/j.icarus.2014.09.007.
  14. ^ Doose, Lyn R; Karkoschka, Erich; Tomasko, Martin G; Anderson, Carrie M (2016). "Titan's Aerosol and Stratospheric Ice Opacities between 18 and 500 μm: Vertical and Spectral Characteristics from Cassini CIRS". Icarus. 270: 355. doi:10.1016/j.icarus.2015.09.039.
  15. ^ "NASA spots a seemingly impossible cloud on Titan — for the second time". washingtonpost.com. Retrieved 2018-06-04.
  16. ^ "Taking on Titan: An Interview with Carrie Anderson". youtube.com. Retrieved 2018-05-06.
  17. ^ a b "Solar System Exploration Division Awards". nasa.gov. Retrieved 2018-07-10.
  18. ^ "NASA Agency Honor Awards 2012" (PDF). nasa.gov. Retrieved 2018-07-10.
  19. ^ "NASA Agency Honor Awards 2015" (PDF). nasa.gov. Retrieved 2018-07-10.
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