A look behind the scenes...

I enjoy making hard science understandable—from atmospheric physics to space weather modeling. Below is a summary of my work and the overarching story that connects my scientific research. 

Want to dive into specific projects or see the full depth of my work? Visit my portfolio for more. 

Tracking the invisible storms that threaten the Earth’s neighborhood. 

From solar flares to radiation belts, I explore how space weather impacts our planet. 

My team and I forecast storms in space to uncover the forces that shape our near-Earth environment.

Space Weather

One of my favorite projects has been predicting solar particle events—great explosions on the Sun’s surface that accelerate highly charged particles into space and, sometimes, toward Earth. Often referred to as “solar storms” and described in weather-like terms, these phenomena are part of what scientists call space weather, the study of the radiation environment near Earth and its impact on human activities and technology. Space weather matters because radiation from space can greatly impact satellites, spacecraft, and even power grids. Planning a mission to Mars? You'll need to know how much radiation you'll encounter, first.

I spend my days developing advanced computer models and algorithms to study solar energetic particles, galactic cosmic rays, and trapped radiation. Wait, what are all those big terms? Solar energetic particles are super-fast, high-energy particles that burst out from the Sun during big explosions like solar flares. Galactic cosmic rays are tiny, supercharged particles that come from exploding stars far outside our solar system and travel across the galaxy (a loooong journey just to see you! And mess up your electronic devices.) Then, trapped radiation is made up of high-energy particles caught by Earth’s magnetic field, forming invisible belts (called the Van Allen belts) that circle the planet.