Randy Carlson
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| Research Assistant |
| Entered: | 2007 |
| Office: | 112 Astronomy |
| Phone: | (575)646-6399 |
| Fax: | (575)646-1602 |
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| E-mail: | carlsonr |
| (append "@nmsu.edu") |
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| M.S. | Purdue University, | 2002 |
| B.S. | US Air Force Academy, | 2001 |
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Research
I am currently in my third year here, which means I plan to take my orals and
present my dissertation proposal during the Fall semester (current abstract to
my proposal is below). My situation here at NMSU is quite different than most
of the other grad students. I am an active duty captain in the United States
Air Force. I appreciate being fully funded, but the Air Force keeps me on a
strict timeline. I am currently expected to be done during the fall semester
of 2010. So, I'll start writing my dissertation soon!
Before coming to NMSU, I had Air Force assignments in the Air Force Research
Lab (AFRL) in Albuquerque, NM and teaching undergraduate physics and math at
the Air Force Academy near Colorado Springs, Colorado. While at AFRL, I
conducted research and served as a program manager in the areas of spacecraft
component technology and adaptive optics. The latter was at the Starfire
Optical Range.
My long-term goals are to further contribute to the astronomy and
space-exploration community through both research and teaching efforts. I
strongly believe that we need to inspire the next generation of students to
care, and to pursue, science, just as the manned missions to the Moon inspired
a previous generation in the late 1960's. I really enjoyed teaching and am
set to return to the Air Force Academy to teach again in a few years.
I began my graduate studies in July 2007, working with Dr. Nancy Chanover
in the planetary research group. I'm looking at Saturn's atmosphere. I also have interests in asteroids, exoplanets, and astronomy education. Here's the
current abstract to my dissertation proposal (as of 5 Nov 2009), entitled
"Variations in the Cloud Structure and Phosphine Distribution of Saturn's
Equatorial Zone and South Temperate Belt at 3 Microns from 2004 to 2009":
Saturn has a thick and dynamic atmosphere, consisting of a complex
structure of cloud and haze layers. Like Jupiter, the cloud bands on
Saturn are divided into zones and belts. The darker belts are most
likely regions with fewer clouds compared to the brighter zones. The
structure and dynamics of Saturn's cloud and haze layers are mostly
unknown. Several previous works have analyzed specific latitudes
using either ground-based or spacecraft-based data. In this work, my
collaborators and I use both ground-based and spacecraft-based data
obtained coincidentally over a span of six years to analyze both
spatial and temporal variations in the tropospheric cloud and haze
structure and the vertical distribution of phosphine gas of Saturn's
south temperate belt (STeB) and the southern part of the equatorial
zone (EZ). Specifically, we examine infrared (2.5-3.3 microns)
spectra obtained between 2004 and 2009 using both the SpeX
spectrograph located at the Infrared Telescope Facility (IRTF) and the
Visual and Infrared Mapping Spectrometer (VIMS) on board Cassini. We
compare spectra at observation latitudes near 15°S (EZ) and 30°S
(STeB) and then model them using radiative transfer code. The free
parameters in these models consist of the following: the phosphine
gas vertical abundance profile and the bottom pressure, thickness,
density, aerosol radius, and index of refraction (real and complex
parts) of one or two tropospheric cloud/haze layers. Results from
this project will provide new insights into Saturn's atmospheric
composition and chemistry and energy and particle transfer mechanisms
such as upwelling from the deep atmosphere.
