Barbara J. Thompson

Barbara June Thompson is an American solar physicist. She is a scientist at Goddard Space Flight Center where she researches coronal mass ejections and the dynamics of coronal structures. Thompson was the project scientist for NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory mission through development and early flight.

Education Thompson completed a B.A. in physics and mathematics with a minor in geology at the University of Pennsylvania in 1991. In 1996, she earned a Ph.D. in physics from the University of Minnesota. Her dissertation was titled The role of inertial Alfvén waves in auroral particle acceleration.

Career She is a scientist working as a civil servant at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center. Thompson joined NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in 1996 after completing her doctoral studies, initially working on the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) mission. She later joined the Solar Physics Branch in 1998 and has since participated in multiple solar satellite and instrument development programs. She was a major organizer of the global International Heliophysical Year effort to study external drivers of planetary environments (including Earth's). Thompson was the project scientist for NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory mission through development and early flight, and continues to hold a major role in that mission, while conducting ongoing research into CME onset and propagation. She was a founder of the NASA Center for HelioAnalytics, focusing on data science, machine learning, and AI methods to advance scientific research.

Research She is noted for wide-ranging contributions to the study of eruptive phenomena in the solar corona, beginning with the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory mission in the 1990s. Early work included EUV imaging studies of coronal mass ejections (CMEs) and their aftermath, including discovery of a global coronal wave response to the launch of CMEs ("EIT waves").

The Solar Dynamics Observatory mission, launched in 2010 as part of NASA's Living With a Star program, continuously observes the Sun in multiple wavelengths to study solar variability and eruptive events such as solar flares and coronal mass ejections .

Understanding coronal mass ejections is important for predicting space weather events that can disrupt satellites, navigation systems, and electrical power infrastructure on Earth.