NASA's recently-funded Small-Explorer (SMEX) mission, PUNCH (Polarimeter to UNify the Corona and Heliosphere), is targeted to launch in 2022. Sarah Gibson, interim director of the High Altitude Observatory at the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR), is coordinating the mission’s innovative science efforts.
Seeker, an American digital media network and content publisher, interviewed HAO's space scientist, Delores Knipp, in July 2019. The presentation is titled "How Earth's Magnetic Field Twists and Buckles During Solar Storms." Dr. Knipp uncovered a war mystery that is connected to a major solor storm event in July 1972.
Following its long history of solar eclipse field expeditions, the High Altitude Observatory currently has a team deployed in Cerro Tololo, Chile to conduct solar physics research. On July 2, a total solar eclipse will be visible in South America, fortuitously passing over the NSF's Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory.
The Journal of Advances in Modeling Earth Systems (JAMES), presented HAO authors, with a certificate of achievement for their WACCM-X paper receiving the most downloads in the 12 months following it's online publication.
Maura Hagan, HAO/NCAR emerita, is among 100 U.S. scientists and 25 international associates elected this year to the National Academy of Sciences, one of the world’s premier academic institutions. Forty percent of the newly elected members are women—the most ever elected in any one year to date.
