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Dr. Amara Graps

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Senior Scientist

Currently resides in Latvia
graps [at] psi.edu
Areas of Expertise
Targets: Asteroids, Ceres, Comets, Dwarf planets, Enceladus, Icy satellites, Interplanetary Dust, Io, Io torus, Jupiter, Meteorites, Moon, Planetary rings, Saturn, Small satellites, Solar particles/Solar wind, Uranus, Vesta
Disciplines/Techniques: Astrobiology, Education/Public Outreach (EPO), Ground-based observing, Magnetospherics, Numerical modeling, Photometry, Remote sensing, Shape modeling, Space-based observing, Volcanism
Missions: Cassini, Dawn, Galileo, IRAS, New Horizons, Rosetta, Ulysses, Voyager
Mission Roles: Calibration/Test planning, Data archive, Data validation, Instrument operations, Mission science team, Requirements generation and flow down, Science operations
Instruments: Cameras, Dust counter
Facilities: IRTF, Palomar

Research Interests

Dr. Amara Graps' current research focuses on Saturn’s magnetosphere, asteroid surface regoliths, and comet dust electrostatic fragmentation. She is also studying the origin of Earth's water. She is engaged in education and public outreach, developing materials for teaching young children about climate. She is also building a Wavelet Library for Astronomers.

CV: November 2017.

Professional History

Dr. Graps received her PhD in 2001 in Physics from the University of Heidelberg where she studied Io revealed in the Jovian dust streams. She was a computational physicist for 18 years before she earned her PhD. She has worked in twelve astronomy research teams since 1982, coordinated three research teams since 2009, and more in submitted proposals. In her ESA and NASA missions support, work, she has analyzed data from the New Horizons space mission, Rosetta spacecraft, Ulysses spacecraft, GORID/Express spacecraft, Cassini spacecraft, Galileo spacecraft, SOHO spacecraft, NASA's Kuiper Airborne Observatory, NASA's ER-2 aircraft, the Voyager 2 spacecraft, the Pioneer Venus Orbiter spacecraft, the Infrared Astronomical Satellite (IRAS), the Space Shuttle's SpaceLab 2, and ground-based telescopes in Hawaii, California, and Arizona. Additionally, The data includes calibration star cluster fields, dust from Saturn's and Jupiter's magnetosphere and Earth's geostationary orbit, the Sun, Comet Shoemaker- Levy 9, Comet Halley, Supernova 1987a, Venus, Mars, Io, Mercury, the Moon, Saturn's and Uranus' rings, asteroids, Earth's atmosphere, protostars, molecular clouds, galaxies, novas, main-sequence stars, and the exhaust-cloud around the Space Shuttle. 

Honors and Awards

NASA Group Achievement Award to the Rosetta Alice Instrument Team
NASA Group Achievement Award to the Dawn Payload Team
ESA Certificate of Outstanding Contribution to the ESA Rosetta Mission
ESA Recognition of Outstanding Contribution to the the Alice Team on the Rosetta Mission

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