Research Vision
Predictive science for the radiation environment of human exploration.
Human activity is moving outward — to cislunar space, to the lunar surface, and within a generation, to Mars. The radiation environment along that path is variable, occasionally severe, and not yet predictable at the level operations will demand. My research is organized around closing that gap.
The Challenge
SEPs are the dominant acute radiation risk beyond low-Earth orbit.
Solar energetic particle events arrive with little warning, vary by orders of magnitude in intensity, and depend sensitively on the large-scale structure of the heliosphere at the moment of eruption.
Building a forecast that mission planners can actually rely on requires advances on three fronts at once: physics (mechanistic models that generalize beyond the events we have already seen), observations (multi-spacecraft constraints on source regions and propagation), and operational delivery (interfaces, latencies, and uncertainty quantification that meet mission requirements).
Research Thrusts
Three directions, one program.
Predictive physics of SEPs.
Physics-based models that connect coronal eruptions to the energetic particles observed throughout the inner heliosphere. The goal is a forecast that is mechanistic — not statistical — and therefore generalizable to events we have not yet seen.
Radiation environments for Artemis and Mars.
Translating heliospheric model output into the quantities that mission designers actually use: dose, dose-equivalent, time-of-arrival distributions, and worst-credible scenarios for cislunar and Martian operations.
Open, operational space weather.
Forecasts are useful only if they reach decision-makers in a form they can act on. We work with NASA, NOAA, and the international community to move research codes toward operational readiness, with open interfaces and reproducible benchmarks.
Looking Forward
Where this is going.
The next decade will see a sharp rise in human and robotic activity beyond Earth orbit. The community needs SEP forecasts that are physics-based, ensemble-aware, and tightly coupled to mission timelines.
The CLEAR Center is the principal vehicle for that work. This site captures the broader scientific program around it — the long-horizon questions, the directions I am betting on, and the kind of students and collaborators I am looking to work with.
Technical depth lives at the CLEAR Center. Models, datasets, validation studies, team members, and current operational tools.
Visit the CLEAR Center →