Amy Simon Explained

Amy A. Simon
Birth Date:October 1971
Birth Place:Union, New Jersey, U.S.
Field:Planetary atmospheres
Robotic exploration
Workplaces:Cornell University
Goddard Space Flight Center
Alma Mater:Florida Institute of Technology
New Mexico State University
Children:1 son

Amy Simon is an American planetary scientist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, involved in several missions of the Solar System Exploration Program.

Education

Simon is from Union Township, Union County, New Jersey,[1] where she attended Union High School.[2] She earned a bachelor's degree in Space Sciences from the Florida Institute of Technology in 1993 [3] and was inducted into Sigma Pi Sigma. She completed her doctoral studies in astronomy at the New Mexico State University in 1998.[4] Upon graduation, she became a postdoctoral research scientist at Cornell University.

Career

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.[3]

Her scientific research involves the study of the composition, dynamics, and cloud structure in jovian planet atmospheres, primarily from spacecraft observations, and as of 2023, she has authored more than 160 peer-reviewed publications.[5]

Works

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.[6] [7] [8] Her analysis of Voyager 2, Cassini-Huygens, Hubble Space Telescope and New Horizons images led to the discovery of several new classes of Jupiter atmospheric waves.[9] [10] [11]

Beyond Jupiter, she has studied atmospheric chemistry and dynamics on Saturn, including the north-polar hexagon.[12] She was also part of a team that observed Neptune using the Kepler space telescope, detecting solar oscillations in light reflected off a planet for the first time.[13] [14]

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 [15] instrument and the deputy principal investigator for the Lucy spacecraft L'Ralph instrument.[16]

Since 2014, she has been the principal investigator of the Hubble Outer Planet Atmospheres Legacy (OPAL) program.[17] Her team discovered a new Great Dark Spot on Neptune with Hubble[18] and has published more than 12 manuscripts from OPAL data.[17] Her work with OSIRIS-REX led to the discovery of hydrated minerals on the surface of Bennu and earned a NASA Exceptional Scientific Achievement Medal.[19]

Explorations

Simon also plans future planetary exploration missions. She served on the National Academy of Sciences' 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 the principal investigator for the proposed New Frontiers class Saturn probe mission, SPRITE.

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

Honors and awards

Notes and References

  1. https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/people/842/amy-simon/ Amy Simon: Planetary Scientist
  2. 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"
  3. Web site: Bio - Amy A. Simon. science.gsfc.nasa.gov. NASA. 2018-08-19.
  4. Web site: NMSU Astronomy Alumni. astronomy.nmsu.edu. 2018-06-04. October 2015. 28 July 2018. https://web.archive.org/web/20180728002849/http://astronomy.nmsu.edu/directory/alumni/. dead.
  5. Web site: Google scholar profile: Amy A. Simon. Google Scholar. 2018-08-16.
  6. New Observational Results Concerning Jupiter's Great Red Spot. Icarus. 158. 1. 249–266. 10.1006/icar.2002.6867. 2002. Simon-Miller. A. A . Gierasch. P. J.. Beebe. R. F.. Conrath. B.. Flasar. F. M.. Achterberg. R. K.. 2002Icar..158..249S.
  7. Historical and Contemporary Trends in the Size, Drift, and Color of Jupiter's Great Red Spot. Astronomical Journal. 155. 4. 151. 10.3847/1538-3881/aaae01. 2018. Simon . Amy A.. Tabataba-Vakili. F.. Cosentino. R.. Beebe. R. F.. Wong. M. H.. Orton. G. S.. 2018AJ....155..151S. 126147959 . free.
  8. Web site: Jupiter's Great Red Spot Getting Taller as it Shrinks, NASA Team Finds. nasa.gov. NASA . 12 March 2018. 2018-03-13.
  9. A New, Long-Lived, Jupiter Mesoscale Wave Observed at visible Wavelengths. Astronomical Journal. 156. 2. 79. 10.3847/1538-3881/aacaf5. 30510304. 6268009. 2018. Simon. Amy A.. Hueso. R.. Inurrigarro. P.. Sanchez-Lavega. A.. Morales-Juberias. R.. Cosentino . R.. et al. 1807.10692. 2018AJ....156...79S . free .
  10. Small-scale waves on Jupiter: A reanalysis of New Horizons, Voyager, and Galileo data . Geophysical Research Letters. 42. 8. 2612–2618. 10.1002/2015GL063433. 2015. Simon. Amy A.. Li. L.. Reuter. D. C.. 2015GeoRL..42.2612S. 129617336 .
  11. Longitudinal Variation and Waves in Jupiter's South Equatorial Wind Jet. Icarus. 218. 2. 817–830. 10.1016/j.icarus.2012.01.022. 2012 . Simon-Miller . A. A . Rogers . J. H . Gierasch . P. J . Choi . D. C . Allison . M. D . Adamoli . G. . Mettig . H. J . 2012Icar..218..817S. 2060/20120007841. 122840527 . free.
  12. Meandering Shallow Atmospheric Jet as a Model of Saturn's North-Polar Hexagon. Astrophysical Journal Letters. 806. 1. L18. 10.1088/2041-8205/806/1/L18. 2015. Morales-Juberias. R.. Sayanagi. K. M.. Simon . Amy A.. Fletcher. L. N.. Cosentino. R. G.. 2015ApJ...806L..18M. 55193896 .
  13. Neptune's Dynamic Atmosphere for Kepler K2 Observations: implications for Brown Dwarf Light Curve Analysis. Astrophysical Journal. 817. 2. 162. 10.3847/0004-637X/817/2/162. 28127087. 5257274. 2016. Simon. Amy A. . Rowe. J. F.. Gaulme. P.. Hammel. H. B.. Casewell. S. L.. Fortney. J. J.. et al. 2016ApJ...817..162S. 1512.07090 . free .
  14. A Distant Mirror: Solar Oscillations Observed on Neptune by the Kepler K2 Mission. Astrophysical Journal Letters. 833. 1. L13. 10.3847/2041-8213/833/1/L13. 2016. Gaulme. P.. Rowe. J. F.. Bedding. T. R.. Benomar. O.. Corsaro. E.. Davies. G. R.. et al . 1612.04287. 2016ApJ...833L..13G. 119477700 . free .
  15. Web site: Landsat 9 Science Instrument Details. https://web.archive.org/web/20170407145645/https://landsat.gsfc.nasa.gov/landsat-9/instruments/landsat-9-science-instrument-details/. dead. 2017-04-07. landsat.gsfc.nasa.gov. NASA. 2018-08-19.
  16. Web site: The Lucy Spacecraft and Payload. lucy.swri.edu. 2018-08-19. 3 June 2021. https://web.archive.org/web/20210603145003/http://lucy.swri.edu/mission/Spacecraft.html. dead.
  17. Web site: Outer Planet Atmospheres Legacy Program . archive.stsci.edu. 2018-08-19.
  18. A New Dark Vortex on Neptune . Astronomical Journal. 155. 3. 117. 10.3847/1538-3881/aaa6d6. 2018. Wong. M. H.. Tollefson. J.. Hsu. A. I.. de Pater. I.. Imke de Pater. Simon . Amy A.. Hueso. R.. et al. 2018AJ....155..117W. free.
  19. Evidence for widespread hydrated minerals on asteroid (101955) Bennu. Nature Astronomy. 3. 4. 332–340. 10.1038/s41550-019-0722-2. 31360777. 6662227. 2019. Hamilton. V. E.. Simon . Amy A.. et al. 2019NatAs...3..332H. 1721.1/124501.
  20. Web site: Planetary Science Decadal Survey. National Academies. 2018-09-07. 2 February 2012. https://web.archive.org/web/20120202062540/http://sites.nationalacademies.org/ssb/completedprojects/ssb_065878. dead.
  21. Web site: Enceladus: Saturn's Active Ice Moon. lpi.usra.edu. 2018-09-07.
  22. Web site: Ice Giants Mission Planning . lpi.usra.edu. 2018-09-07.
  23. Web site: 2023 Prize Winners. dps.aas.org. DPS. 2023-08-13.
  24. Web site: 2022 Presidential Rank Award Winners. opm.gov. NASA. 2022-12-06.
  25. Web site: Solar System Exploration Division (690) Awards Won. science.gsfcnasa.gov. NASA. 2021-02-08.
  26. Web site: Lindsay Awards and Lectures. science.gsfcnasa.gov. NASA. 2021-03-05.
  27. Web site: NASA Bio, Dr. Amy Simon. nasa.gov. NASA. 5 May 2023.
  28. Web site: Sciences and Exploration Directorate (600) Awards Won. nasa.gov . NASA. 2018-08-17.
  29. Web site: NASA Agency Honor Awards 2014. nasa.gov. NASA. 2018-08-17.

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