USTAR Space Weather Center at USU Welcomes Chief Scientist

Herb Carlson has been appointed chief scientist and director of strategic planning for the Utah State University USTAR Space Weather Center team. The former chief scientist for the United States Air Force Office of Scientific Research joined the team in March 2010.

 

Carlson’s role includes technical and business tasks such as advising, recommending and participating in research that will best position the Space Weather Center in maintaining and extending an established lead in space weather prediction.

“Utah State University, thanks to work done by the Center for Atmospheric and Space Sciences, is a leader in space science research,” said Carlson. “The years of hard work by CASS scientists help place the Space Weather Center in a position to develop new technology that is ahead of the game in forecasting space weather.

 

“The future of the USTAR Space Weather Center lies in meeting the growing needs of an already large national and international market that the center will materially serve. The nation has a significant investment in space assets, to meet commercial and national defense needs. Assured continuity of access to these assets is important to the commercial bottom line and national defense.”

 

Space weather disturbances can negatively impact GPS location devices, ATM machines, TV reception and transatlantic flight services.  

 

The ionosphere is the shell of ionized upper atmosphere enveloping Earth. The USU SWC has state-of-the-art modeling capability to predict when the ionosphere will serve as a smooth, benign transmission line, and when it may intermittently “fracture” due to magnetic storms or electric fields common at high latitudes.

 

“Ionospheric structuring without warning can cause surprise loss of communications, navigation and space-based radar imaging,” said Carlson. “Reliable prediction allows information traffic to be rerouted for continuous connectivity.”

 

In 2009, the Space Weather Center released the iPhone app “SpaceWx” designed to visualize real-time space weather and allow for a more accurate GPS location identifier used by mobile smart phones. In the future, the SWC intends to develop predictive capabilities for more reliable high-frequency communications for use by the Federal Aviation Administration, commercial airlines and the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s emergency backup communication. The SWC also plans to develop forecasting technologies for ionospheric plasma clouds that block access to satellite assets to enable reliable re-routing of information.

 

“The long-term goal of the SWC is to maintain its present lead in space weather research using a comprehensive physics-based predictive model that is driven by real time global data,” said Carlson. “At Utah State University, we are in the position to achieve these goals.”

 

Carlson received a doctorate from Cornell University while studying at the Arecibo Ionospheric Observatory, Arecibo, Puerto Rico, an observatory constructed to study the ionosphere above the height of high-frequency radio wave reflection. From 1977-79, Carlson directed the National Science Foundation Aeronomy program and proposed a new multi-million-dollar-per-year program to meet future ground-based instrumental needs. The program was awarded National Science board approval and was used to create the Upper Atmospheric Facilities program. Carlson continued his work with the NSF until 1981, during which he devised NSF’s cooperative agreement management tool.

 

In 1981, Carlson accepted an offer by the United States Air Force Geophysics Laboratory to amalgamate two technical branches into a stronger ionospheric capability. The group continues and is recognized as an Air Force Center of Excellence in Space Weather.

 

Carlson’s career has many firsts. In 1979, he was the founding director of the National Science Foundation Upper Atmospheric Facilities program, founding selectee of the Air Force Office of Scientific Research Star Team Leader program in the 1980s, founding fellow of the Unites States Air Force Phillips Lab Fellows in the early 1990s, first chief scientist of the Air Force Office of Scientific Research in 1998 and a U.S. Presidential Rank award winner in 2003, the first year in which scientific senior executives were included in the award. His honors include being elected member of the Norwegian Academy of Sciences, fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society London and a fellow of the Air Force Research Lab. 

 

Carlson has published more than 120 journal articles and books and has more than 2,000 citations in peer reviewed literature in space sciences. He has won research grants and awards from the National Science Foundation, NASA and United States Air Force and served on, chaired or served as a consultant for panels and boards in government, industry and academia.

 

The Utah Science Technology and Research initiative (USTAR) is a long-term, state-funded investment to strengthen Utah’s “knowledge economy” and generate high-paying jobs. Funded in March 2006 by the state legislature, USTAR is based on three program areas. The first area involves funding for strategic investments at the University of Utah and Utah State University to recruit world-class researchers. The second area is to build state-of-the-art interdisciplinary facilities at these institutions for the innovation teams. The third program area involves teams that work with companies and entrepreneurs across the state to promote science, innovation and commercialization activities.

 

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