Research Interests:
Professor of Meteorology
since 2005. Scientist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, 1984-2004.
Observational and modeling interests in: (1) air-sea exchange and biogeochemical
cycling; (2) early studies of chemical-climate links, pollution, oxidizing
capacity; (3) remote sensing; (4) trace gas variability from natural, anthropogenic
causes (aviation, biomass burning). Known for leadership in aircraft, cruises,
international field experiments and the SHADOZ and IONS ozonesonde networks.
Recipient of COSPAR’s Nordberg Medal for Space Science, the Women
in Aerospace International Achievement Award, NASA Honor Award (SHADOZ),
NASA/DOI Wm T. Pecora Award (TOMS), Penn State’s Wilson Research Excellence
Award. Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science
(AAAS), American Geophysical Union (AGU), American Meteorological Society
(AMS). President of the Commission on Atmospheric Chemistry and Global Pollution
(2002-2006), Vice-President of IAMAS (2007-), Chair-elect of AAAS Atmospheric
and Hydrospheric Sciences Section. Over 150 refereed publications. ISI highly-cited
author (Geosciences).
Teaching Interests:
Atmospheric
Chemistry, Remote Sensing, Biogeochemical Cycles
Dr. Thompson is active planning, conducting and analyzing field data
from NASA aircraft experiments, particularly those involving the link
between chemistry and convection and biomass burning effects on ozone.
She was Co-Mission Scientist for the 1997 DC-8 aircraft campaign, SONEX
(SASS Ozone and Nitrogen Experiment), showing that lightning and convection
affect the North Atlantic upper troposphere along with subsonic aviation.
Dr. Thompson is PI for the SHADOZ Project, archiving tropical southern
hemisphere ozonesonde data for satellite validation: http://croc.gsfc.nasa.gov/shadoz.
In 2004 she led the INTEX ozonesonde network study that collected an unprecedented
300 soundings in North America within six weeks: http://croc.gsfc.nasa.gov/intex/ions.html
In 2006, Dr. Thompson organized IONS-06 (http://croc.gsfc.nasa.gov/intexb/ions06.html)
with 23 North American sites and led Penn State field work in Mexico City,
Houston and Washington state. On NASA's TC4 (http://www.espo.nasa.gov/tc4/)
campaign in 2007, NATIVE and A Penn State Team investigated tropical chemistry
and convection in Panama.
Selected Publications (165 peer-reviewed in total):
J. C. Witte, M. R. Schoeberl, A. R. Douglass, A. M. Thompson, The quasi-biennial
oscillation in tropical ozone, Atmos. Chem. Phys. Disc. submitted, 2008.
A. M. Thompson, et al., Intercontinental Transport Ozonesonde Network
Study (IONS, 2004): 1. Summertime UT/LS (Upper Troposphere/Lower Stratosphere)
ozone over northeastern North America, J. Geophys. Res., 112,
D12S12, doi: 10.1029/2006JD007441, 2007.
R. B. Chatfield, H. Guan, A. M. Thompson, H. G. J. Smit, Mechanisms for
the intraseasonal variability of tropospheric ozone during the Indian
winter monsoon, J. Geophys. Res., 112, D10303,
doi: 10.1029/2006JD007347, 2007.
A. M. Thompson, et al., Southern Hemisphere Additional Ozonesondes (SHADOZ)
1998-2004 tropical ozone climatology. 3. Instrumentation, station variability,
evaluation with simulated flight profiles, J. Geophys. Res.,
112, D03304, doi: 10.1029/ 2005JD007042, 2007.
R. D. Diab, A. Raghunandran, A. M. Thompson, V. Thouret, classification
of tropospheric ozone profiles over Johannesburg based on MOZAIC aircraft
data, Atmos. Chem. Phys., 3, 713-723, 2003.
A. M. Thompson, J. C. Witte, R. D. Hudson, H. Guo, J. R. Herman, M. Fujiwara,
Tropical tropospheric ozone and biomass burning, Science, 291,
2128-2132, 2001.
A. M. Thompson, et al., Southern Hemisphere ADditional Ozonesondes (SHADOZ)
1998-2000 tropical ozone climatology. 1. Comparison with TOMS and ground-based
measurements, J. Geophys. Res., 108, 8238, doi:
10.1029/2001JD000967, 2003.
A. M. Thompson, B. G. Doddridge, J. C. Witte, R. D. Hudson, W. T. Luke,
J. E. Johnson, B. J. Johnson, S. J. Oltmans, R. Weller, A tropical Atlantic
paradox: Shipboard and satellite views of a tropospheric ozone maximum
and wave-one in January-February 1999, Geophys. Res. Lett., 27,
3317-3320, 2000.
H. B. Singh, A. M. Thompson and H. Schlager, The 1997 SONEX aircraft
campaign and coordinated POLINAT-2 activity: Overview and accomplishments,
Geophys. Res. Lett., 26, 3053-3056, 1999.
A. M. Thompson, W.-K. Tao, K. E. Pickering, J. R. Scala, and J. Simpson,
Tropical deep convection and ozone formation, Bull. Amer. Met. Soc.,
78, 1,043-1,054, 1997.
A. M. Thompson, et al., Where did tropospheric ozone over southern Africa
and the tropical Atlantic come from in October 1992? Insights from TOMS,
GTE/TRACE-A and SAFARI-92, J. Geophys. Res., 101,
24,251-24,278, 1996.
A. M. Thompson, Measuring and modeling the tropospheric hydroxyl radical
(OH), J. Atmos. Sci., 52, 3315-3327, 1995.
A. M. Thompson, et al., SAGA-3 ozone observations and a photochemical
model analysis of the marine boundary layer during SAGA-3, J. Geophys.
Res., 98, 16955-16968, 1993.
A. M. Thompson, J. A. Chappellaz, I. Y. Fung, and T. L. Kucsera, Atmospheric
methane increase since the last glacial maximum. 2. Effect on oxidants,
Tellus, 45B, 242-257, 1993.
A. M. Thompson, The oxidizing capacity of the Earth's atmosphere: Probable
past and future changes, Science, 256, 1157-1165,
1992.
A. M. Thompson, K. B. Hogan, and J. S. Hoffman, Methane reductions: Implications
for global warming and atmospheric chemical change, Atmos. Environ.,
26A, 2665-2688, 1992.
K. B. Hogan, A. M. Thompson, and J. S. Hoffman, Methane on the greenhouse
agenda, Nature, 354, 181-182, 1991.
A. M. Thompson and R. W. Stewart, The effect of chemical kinetics uncertainties
on calculated constituents in a tropospheric photochemical model, J.
Geophys. Res., 96, 13089-13108, 1991.
A. M. Thompson, R. W. Stewart, M. A. Owens, and J. A. Herwehe, Sensitivity
of tropospheric oxidants to global chemical and climate change, Atmos.
Environ., 23, 519-532, 1989.
A. M. Thompson and R. J. Cicerone, Atmospheric CH4, CO, and OH from 1860-1985,
Nature, 321, 148-150, 1986.
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