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  Principal Investigator
  • Peterson’s Publications
• Science Team Members
• Other POLAR Instruments
• Summaries of Codes for TIMAS Investigators

Principal Investigator

Bill Peterson

W.K. (Bill) Peterson

Research Associate
Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics LASP
University of Colorado
1234 Innovation Drive
Boulder, Colorado 80303

Phone (303) 492-0686
Fax (303) 492-6444
E-mail Bill.Peterson@lasp.colorado.edu

2001-Present Research Associate, University of Colorado,
LASP
2002-2004 Geospace Sciences Discipline Scientist,
NASA Headquarters, Washington DC (3/4 time
appointment)
1977-2001 Research Scientist, Lockheed Martin Palo Alto Research Laboratories, Palo Alto, California

Professional Interests:
Obtaining and using observations from ground and
space based instruments to characterize the Earth’s plasma
environment to test models and theories attempting to describe it.

Education:
Boettcher Scholar, South Denver High School, 1959
BS, with honors, 1964 Engineering Physics, University of Colorado, Boulder.
PhD. Physics, 1971, University of Colorado, Boulder
Post doctoral studies at the Deutches Electronen-Synchrotron (DESY)
1971-1973, and at The Johns Hopkins University, 1973-1977.

Professional Recognition:
Fellow, American Geophysical Union
Distinguished Visiting Scientist, Herzberg Institute of Astrophysics,
Ottawa, Canada, 1993.
Principal Investigator on the NASA Polar/TIMAS Instrument
and the CRRES Chemical Release Program.
Co-Investigator on several mass spectrometer investigations on the NASA
Dynamics Explorer, AMPTE, and FAST, satellite programs.
Member of the Science Team of the Canadian Space Agency CASCADE Demonstrator Small-sat
and Ionospheric Polar Exporer/Enhanced Polar Outflow Probe mission
Co-Investigator on the 2013 Mars Scout Satellite Program Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution Mission (MAVEN)

NASA Exceptional Service awards for work on Atmosphere Explorer (AE), International Sun-Earth Explorer (AE), Active Magnetospheric Particle Tracer Experiment (AMPTE), Combined Release and Radiation Effects Satellite (CRRES), Fast Auroral SnapshoT explorer (FAST), Global Geospace Science (GGS) / Polar Satellite, and the Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvoluioN satellite (MAVEN) programs.

Professional Service:

2019-       , Editor, Perspectives of Earth and Space Scientists

2010-2017, Editor, Geophysical Research Letters
2005-2008 Secretary of the Electronic Geophysical Year.
2002-2004 Discipline Scientist for magnetospheric physics at NASA Headquarters in
Washington DC.
2000-2005 Co-chair of the GEM working group on mass exchange.
1997-2005 Member Science and Technology Definition Team for the Global
Electrodynamics (GED) program.
1993-1997 Space Physics Data System, Magnetospheric Steering Committee

Public Service:
Downtown Palo Alto Farmers’ Market Inc. (1983-1997)
Downtown Park North Neighborhood Association (1985-1997)
Palo Alto Civic League (1993-1997)

Traditional and Electronic Publications
Over 250 publications on the subjects of atomic collision physics,
polarized electrons, atmospheric photoelectrons, composition and dynamics of
the mid and high altitude magnetospheric and auroral plasma, ion
acceleration processes, and image processing.

Data sets made made available for general use:
Energetic Ion Composition Spectrometer on Dynamcis Explorer -1
A guide to on-line data from the Dynamics Explorer Program
A users guide to data from the Combined Release and Radiation Effects
Satellite Program (CRRES)
A guide to on-line data from the Energetic Ion Mass Spectrometer on ISEE-1
Prepared with the assistance of Walter Lennartsson.
Various data sets from the TIMAS instrument on NASA’s Polar Satellite.
TIMAS Browse data product interface

Interactive generation of high resolution spectrograms and associated ASCII data files.
H0 High resolution digital data product
H1 and h2 High resolution digital data products from 1996 to 1998.
TIMAS Key Parameters (K0 and K1)
TIMAS data formatted for radiation belt investigations
On line data sets for specific investigations

Web sites created

(Links under my control are updated)

• • The Space Physics Project Series. An on-line study guide for middle and high school students, parents and mentors. Created with the assistance of Bob Zafran.
  • The Polar/TIMAS Project web pages.
  • A guide to on-line data and results from the DE -1 Energetic Ion Composition Spectrometer (EICS) project.
  • My table business site.

Last updated: 9/27/2022