Amy Simon

Amy A. Simon
Born 1971 (age 46–47)
Union, New Jersey, U.S.
Alma mater Florida Institute of Technology
New Mexico State University
Scientific career
Fields Planetary atmospheres
Robotic exploration
Institutions Cornell University
Goddard Space Flight Center

Amy Simon (born 1971) is an American planetary scientist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center. Asteroid 2003 YW106 is named 84994 Amysimon in her honor.[1]

Education

Simon is from Union Township, Union County, New Jersey,[2] where she attended Union High School.[3] She earned a Bachelors Degree in Space Sciences from Florida Institute of Technology in 1993[4] and was inducted into Sigma Pi Sigma. She completed her doctoral studies in astronomy at the New Mexico State University in 1998.[5] Upon graduation she became a postdoctoral research scientist at Cornell University.

Career

Dr. Simon is a Senior Scientist in the Solar System Exploration Division at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, having joined NASA as a civil servant in 2001. She served as the Chief of the Planetary Systems Laboratory from 2008 to 2010 and the Associate Division Director from 2010 to 2013.[4]

Her scientific research involves the study of the composition, dynamics, and cloud structure in jovian planet atmospheres, primarily from spacecraft observations, and she has authored more than 100 peer-reviewed publications.[6] Her contributions include the first detailed study of the changing shape of Jupiter's Great Red Spot, as well as the discoveries of several types of waves in the atmosphere of Jupiter.[7][8][9] Her analysis of Voyager 2, Cassini-Huygens, Hubble and New Horizons images led to the discovery of several new classes of Jupiter atmospheric waves.[10][11][12] Beyond Jupiter, she has studied atmospheric chemistry and dynamics on Saturn, including the north polar hexagon.[13] She was also part of a team that observed Neptune using the Kepler spacecraft Telescope, detecting solar oscillations in light reflected off a planet for the first time.[14][15] Dr. Simon is involved in multiple robotic NASA planetary missions. She was a co-investigator on the Cassini-Huygens Composite Infrared Spectrometer (CIRS) and is the Deputy Instrument Scientist for the OSIRIS-REx Visible and IR Spectrometer (OVIRS), as well as for the Landsat 9 Thermal Infrared Sensor-2[16] instrument and the Deputy Principal Investigator for the Lucy (spacecraft) L'Ralph instrument.[17]  She is Principal Investigator of the Hubble Outer Planet Atmospheres Legacy (OPAL) program.[18] Her team discovered a new Great Dark Spot on Neptune with Hubble[19] and have published more more than 12 manuscripts from OPAL data.[18]

Dr. Simon also plans future planetary exploration missions. She served on the National Academy of Science's Space Studies Board 2013 Planetary Science Decadal Survey.[20] She has co-led several mission studies for NASA including Flagship class missions to Enceladus and to the Ice Giants, Uranus and Neptune.[21][22] She was Principal investigator for the proposed New Frontiers class Saturn probe mission, SPRITE (spacecraft).

Simon is a member of the American Geophysical Union, the American Astronomical Society, and the Division for Planetary Sciences.

Recent honors and awards

  • NASA Silver Achievement Medal (OVIRS Team) - 2017
  • NASA Group Achievement Award (OSIRIS-REx Team) - 2017
  • Robert H. Goddard Science Achievement Award (Hubble OPAL Team) - 2016
  • Robert H. Goddard Engineering Achievement Award (OVIRS Team)
  • NASA Exceptional Service Medal - 2016[23]
  • Robert H. Goddard Exceptional Engineering (OVIRS Team) - 2014
  • NASA Exceptional Service Medal - 2014 [24]

References

  1. ↑ "Minor Planets 84001-85000". Retrieved 2018-08-17.
  2. ↑ Amy Simon: Planetary Scientist, NASA. Accessed September 13, 2018. "[Q] Where are you from? [A] I am originally from Union, N. J."
  3. ↑ Parkinson, Claire L.; Millar, Pamela S.; and Thaller, Michelle. (editors). Women of Goddard: Careers in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, July 2011, p. 111. Accessed September 13, 2018. "Amy Simon-Miller Union High School, Union, New Jersey"
  4. 1 2 "Bio - Amy A. Simon". science.gsfc.nasa.gov. Retrieved 2018-08-19.
  5. ↑ "NMSU Astronomy Alumni". astronomy.nmsu.edu. Retrieved 2018-06-04.
  6. ↑ "Google scholar profile: Amy A. Simon". Google Scholar. Retrieved 2018-08-16.
  7. ↑ Simon-Miller, A. A; Gierasch, P. J; Beebe, R. F; Conrath, B; Flasar, F. M; Achterberg, R. K (2002). "New Observational Results Concerning Jupiter's Great Red Spot". Icarus. 158: 249–266. doi:10.1006/icar.2002.6867.
  8. ↑ Simon, A. A; Tabataba-Vakili, F.; Cosentino, R.; Beebe, R. F.; Wong, M. H; Orton, G. S (2018). "Historical and Contemporary Trends in the Size, Drift, and Color of Jupiter's Great Red Spot". Astronomical Journal. 155 (4): 151. doi:10.3847/1538-3881/aaae01.
  9. ↑ "Jupiter's Great Red Spot Getting Taller as it Shrinks, NASA Team Finds". nasa.gov. Retrieved 2018-03-13.
  10. ↑ Simon, A. A; Hueso, R.; Inurrigarro, P.; Sanchez-Lavega, A.; Morales-Juberias, R.; Cosentino, R.; et al. (2018). "A New, Long-Lived, Jupiter Mesoscale Wave Observed at visible Wavelengths". Astronomical Journal. 156 (2): 79. arXiv:1807.10692. doi:10.3847/1538-3881/aacaf5.
  11. ↑ Simon, A. A; Li, L.; Reuter, D.C (2015). "Small-scale waves on Jupiter: A reanalysis of New Horizons, Voyager, and Galileo data". Geophysical Research Letters. 42 (8): 2612–2618. doi:10.1002/2015GL063433 . Retrieved 2018-09-07.
  12. ↑ Simon-Miller, A. A; Rogers, J. H; Gierasch, P. J; Choi, D. C; Allison, M. D; Adamoli, G.; Mettig, H. J (2012). "Longitudinal Variation and Waves in Jupiter's South Equatorial Wind Jet. ". Icarus. 218 (2): 817–830. doi:10.1016/j.icarus.2012.01.022.
  13. ↑ Morales-Juberias, R.; Sayanagi, K. M; Simon, A. A; Fletcher, L.N.; Cosentino, R. G (2015). "Meandering Shallow Atmospheric Jet as a Model of Saturn's North-Polar Hexagon. ". Astrophysical Journal Letters. 806: L18. doi:10.1088/2041-8205/806/1/L18.
  14. ↑ Simon, A. A; Rowe, J. F; Gaulme, P.; Hammel, H. B.; Casewell, S. L; Fortney, J. J; et al. (2016). "Neptune's Dynamic Atmosphere for Kepler K2 Observations: implications for Brown Dwarf Light Curve Analysis. ". Astrophysical Journal. 817 (2): 162. doi:10.3847/0004-637X/817/2/162. PMC 5257274. PMID 28127087.
  15. ↑ Gaulme, P.; Rowe, J. F.; Bedding, T. R.; Benomar, O.; Corsaro, E; Davies, G. R; et al. (2016). "A Distant Mirror: Solar Oscillations Observed on Neptune by the Kepler K2 Mission. ". Astrophysical Journal Letters. 833: L13. arXiv:1612.04287. doi:10.3847/2041-8213/833/1/L13.
  16. ↑ "Landsat 9 Science Instrument Details". landsat.gsfc.nasa.gov. Retrieved 2018-08-19.
  17. ↑ "The Lucy Spacecraft and Payload". lucy.swri.edu. Retrieved 2018-08-19.
  18. 1 2 "Outer Planet Atmospheres Legacy Program". stsci.edu. Retrieved 2018-08-19.
  19. ↑ Wong, M. H; Tollefson, J.; Hsu, A. I; de Pater, I.; Simon, A. A.; Hueso, R.; et al. (2018). "A New Dark Vortex on Neptune. ". Astronomical Journal. 155 (3): 117. doi:10.3847/1538-3881/aaa6d6.
  20. ↑ "Planetary Science Decadal Survey". National Academies. Retrieved 2018-09-07.
  21. ↑ "Enceladus: Saturn's Active Ice Moon" (PDF). lpi.usra.edu. Retrieved 2018-09-07.
  22. ↑ "Ice Giants Mission Planning". lpi.usra.edu. Retrieved 2018-09-07.
  23. ↑ "Sciences and Exploration Directorate (600) Awards Won". nasa.gov. Retrieved 2018-08-17.
  24. ↑ "NASA Agency Honor Awards 2014" (PDF). nasa.gov. Retrieved 2018-08-17.
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