Mary K Hudson

Biography

Space Physicist Mary K. Hudson, PhD UCLA 1974, is Professor of Physics and served for eight years as Chair of Physics and Astronomy at Dartmouth College. Hudson is currently a Co-Principal Investigator on two experiments on the recently launched NASA Van Allen Probes satellites designed to study earth's radiation belts, and on the Balloon Array for Radiation-belt Relativistic Electron Losses (BARREL) along with Professor Robyn Millan of the Physics and Astronomy Department. Hudson and her students study the weather patterns that originate from solar eruptions, following the energy and mass transfer through the interplanetary medium, all the way to the earth's ionosphere. Current areas of investigation include the evolution of the radiation belts; how the ionized particle outflow known as the solar wind and the magnetic field of the sun interact with the magnetic field of the earth, producing electrical currents in the ionosphere; and the effects of solar cosmic rays on radio communications near the earths poles. Professor Hudson is also funded through NSF to study solar cosmic rays and there access to the atmosphere.

Research Interest

Space weather patterns that originate from a solar eruption, evolution of the radiation belts, ionized particle outflow known as the solar wind and the magnetic field of the sun interact with the magnetic field of the earth and its ionized and neutral gas populations / effects of solar cosmic rays on radio communications near the earth’s poles / radiation belt electron fluxes / solar cosmic ray trapping and access to the atmosphere