Contact:

Cynthia M. O'Carroll
Goddard Spc Flt Ctr, Greenbelt, Md.
(Phone: 301/614-5563)

NASA SCIENTIST AWARDED DISTINCTION OF AGU 2003 FELLOW

Dr. Anne Thompson, an atmospheric scientist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., has been awarded the distinction of Fellow of the American Geophysical Union (AGU).

New Fellows will be presented with an official certificate on Wednesday April 10 during the Honors Ceremony at the Joint EGS-EUG-AGU Meeting in Nice, France.

AGU has a diverse program for recognizing members who have attained an acknowledged eminence in a branch of the geophysical sciences. This designation is conferred upon not more than 0.1% of all AGU members in any given year. Thompson is one of 41 new Fellows chosen by a Committee of Fellows.

A researcher within the Laboratory for Atmospheres, Thompson was cited “for important innovative research and leadership in elucidating variations in tropospheric chemistry and their relationship to climate change.”

Thompson, a Pennsylvania native, received a Bachelor of Arts with Honors in chemistry from Swarthmore College, a master's degree from Princeton University and a doctorate in physical chemistry from Bryn Mawr College. This was followed by postdoctoral research at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Scripps Institution of Oceanography and by a visiting scientist appointment at the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colo. In 1986, Thompson became a NASA employee in the Atmospheric Chemistry and Dynamics Branch at Goddard.

Thompson's discoveries about the chemistry of the atmosphere have ranged from computer model studies to experiments on ship and research aircraft. The EPA and NASA use her modeling work to develop strategies on global warming, tropospheric ozone (smog) and methane in the atmosphere. In 1997, Thompson served as Chief Scientist for an aircraft campaign to study the atmospheric impacts of jet travel over the Atlantic Ocean. Her research showed that North American pollution and lightning were as important a source of nitrogen oxide as aircraft engine emissions.

Over the past 12 years, Thompson's major achievements have been in the field of tropical tropospheric ozone. She has promoted the use of novel satellite techniques to look at how tropical storm systems and grasslands fires interact with ozone. In 1999 she discovered an ozone "paradox" over the tropical Atlantic while taking data on an oceanographic cruise from Norfolk to South Africa. "We were startled to find even higher ozone in the southern Atlantic during their wet season than close to the biomass fires of northern Africa where it was dry. Researchers are coming up with a variety of explanations for this phenomenon, including lightning," Thompson says.

Thompson's most recent field experiment involved launching the first ozone-measuring balloons in the African city of Lusaka. She and her colleagues were surprised to find a layer of local smog underneath ozone layers imported from a dozen other African nations. Since 1998, Thompson has been the Principal Investigator for the SHADOZ (Southern Hemisphere Additional Ozonesondes) network of 12 ozone ground stations in the tropics. By pulling together a team of US, Japanese, African and South American ozone experts, Thompson's research has greatly improved our knowledge of this little-known part of the globe while providing vital ground-truth for NASA satellites. "As with our aircraft and field campaigns," Thompson states, "SHADOZ has shown that weather and El-Nino-type climate variations are as important in the tropical ozone story as human pollution."

Thompson's honors and awards include a NASA Exceptional Achievement Medal, Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and Fellow of the American Meteorological Society. In 1998 she received the COSPAR (Committee on Space Research) Nordberg Medal for her achievements in using and improving satellite data to study chemistry in the Earth's atmosphere.

Thompson serves on the International Ozone Commission, the Executive Committee of the American Meteorological Society and as current President of the International Commission on Atmospheric Chemistry and Global Pollution. She is an Adjunct Professor in the Earth System Science Interdisciplinary Center and a Meteorology Department Lecturer at the University of Maryland. Thompson has authored more than 130 articles in scientific journals and books.

Thompson lives in Lanham, Md., with her husband, Nels Larson. In addition to her work at Goddard, Thompson enjoys community activities, reading, and photography.

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