Description. Description. Space plasmas are highly collisionless and involve several temporal and spatial length scales, which makes understanding the physical mechanisms responsible for energy transport and cross-scale couplings between these scales a challenge. These processes result in particle energization, heating and transport through plasma structures and boundaries. These processes can both result in beautiful aurora and destruction of ou...
Description. Description. Raman spectroscopy is a powerful spectroscopic analysis technique, that has been applied into many geo-scientific areas including mineralogy, gemology, planetary exploration, and astrobiology, etc., and can provide accurate and detailed molecular and structural information of planetary materials. Owing to its advantages in no sample preparations, quick and non-destructive analyses, unambiguous phase identifications, as w...
Description. Description. . In snowmelt dominant regions, agriculture production is directly tied to runoff from snowmelt. However, climate change is affecting these socioecological food production systems. There are many exacerbating and mitigating combined ecohydrologic processes that contribute to more climate adapted or stressed food-water systems. Characterizing these interactions and changes is critical for improving the management of these...
Description. Description. The emergence of life on Earth (and elsewhere) relied heavily on the inventory of available organics and the environs in which they were found. This research opportunity focuses on the relationships between organic materials and their mineralogical hosts. bridging the gap between observed organics and the processes that affected them. The relationship between organic molecules and mineral hosts informs the formation and...
Description. Description. NASA's POWER (Prediction Of Worldwide renewable Energy Resources) Project provides customized data parameters from NASA's CERES (Clouds and Earth's Radiant Energy System) mission, GEWEX Surface Radiative Budget project and the GMAO (Global Modeling and Assimilation Office) atmospheric reanalysis assimilation projects for the renewable energy including solar, sustainable building/architecture, and agricultural societal be...
Description. Surviving lunar winters is a challenging endeavor for long-duration lunar surface exploration activities. Several thermal protection technologies including advanced radio isotopes and material composites have been proposed to survive extreme conditions. Establishing continual presence on the lunar surface requires surviving harsh conditions of lunar nights. As such, there is an urgent need for the development of efficient, rugged, an...
Description. Description. We are seeking an independent and highly motivated Research Scientist to lead groundbreaking investigations into magmatic volcanism across the inner solar system. By leveraging ground-truth observations from Earth, Mars, and the Moon, alongside advanced remote sensing spectral data and elemental analyses, the successful candidate will pioneer the development of predictive models that shed light on the early conditions of...
Description. Description. Clouds, in particular the frozen phase, bring about the largest challenge and uncertainties to the weather prediction and climate projections. This is mainly due to our lack of understanding of cloud/snow ice microphysics and over-simplified representation in models. On a broader sense, although weather systems and their evolvement are largely determined by the large-scale dynamics, the details are highly coupled among h...
Description. Description. Upcoming missions to the moon, Mars, and Titan plan to use drills to access subsurface materials. The PRIME 1 and VIPER missions, both planned for 2024 launch, will drill to depths of up to 1- meter on the moon. Studies are underway that help prepare for these missions by collecting and analyzing drill data produced by an engineering model of TRIDENT, the drill used on those missions. Drill performance can provide unique...
