{"id":21968,"date":"2020-02-20T15:11:02","date_gmt":"2020-02-20T15:11:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/clemson.world\/research\/?p=21968"},"modified":"2020-02-21T17:15:47","modified_gmt":"2020-02-21T17:15:47","slug":"miguel-lawson","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/clemson.world\/research\/miguel-lawson\/","title":{"rendered":"Miguel Larsen: Head in the Clouds"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id='fullscreen_slider_1'  class='avia-fullscreen-slider main_color   avia-builder-el-0  el_before_av_hr  avia-builder-el-first   container_wrap sidebar_right' style=' '  ><a href='#next-section' title='' class='scroll-down-link av-control-default' aria-hidden='true' data-av_icon='\ue877' data-av_iconfont='entypo-fontello'><\/a><div   data-size='no scaling'  data-lightbox_size='large'  data-animation='slide'  data-conditional_play=''  data-ids='21969'  data-video_counter='0'  data-autoplay='false'  data-bg_slider='true'  data-slide_height='100'  data-handle='av_fullscreen'  data-interval='5'  data-class=' '  data-el_id=''  data-css_id='fullscreen_slider_1'  data-scroll_down='aviaTBscroll_down'  data-control_layout='av-control-default'  data-custom_markup=''  data-perma_caption=''  data-autoplay_stopper=''  data-image_attachment='scroll'  data-min_height='0px'  data-stretch=''  class='avia-slideshow avia-slideshow-1 av-slider-scroll-down-active av-control-default av-default-height-applied avia-slideshow-no scaling av_fullscreen   avia-slide-slider '  itemprop=\"image\" itemscope=\"itemscope\" itemtype=\"https:\/\/schema.org\/ImageObject\" ><ul class='avia-slideshow-inner ' style='padding-bottom: 66.6666666667%;' ><li style='background-position:bottom center;' data-img-url='https:\/\/clemson.world\/research\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2020\/02\/Miguel-Larsen.jpg' class=' av-single-slide slide-1 ' ><div data-rel='slideshow-1' class='avia-slide-wrap '   ><\/div><\/li><\/ul><\/div><\/div><div id='after_full_slider_1'  class='main_color av_default_container_wrap container_wrap sidebar_right' style=' '  ><div class='container' ><div class='template-page content  av-content-small alpha units'><div class='post-entry post-entry-type-page post-entry-21968'><div class='entry-content-wrapper clearfix'>\n<div  style='height:25px' class='hr hr-invisible   avia-builder-el-1  el_after_av_fullscreen  el_before_av_one_full  avia-builder-el-first '><span class='hr-inner ' ><span class='hr-inner-style'><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"flex_column av_one_full  flex_column_div av-zero-column-padding first  avia-builder-el-2  el_after_av_hr  el_before_av_hr  \" style='border-radius:0px; '><section class=\"av_textblock_section \"  itemscope=\"itemscope\" itemtype=\"https:\/\/schema.org\/BlogPosting\" itemprop=\"blogPost\" ><div class='avia_textblock  av_inherit_color '  style='font-size:25px; color:#000000; '  itemprop=\"text\" ><p style=\"color: #f66733; font-size: 19px; font-weight: bolder; text-align: center; text-transform: uppercase; margin-bottom: -50px;\">MIGUEL LArsen<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-size: 72px; font-weight: bolder; text-align: center; line-height: 1.1em;\">Head in the Clouds<\/p>\n<\/div><\/section><\/div><div  style='height:1px; margin-top:-50px'  class='hr hr-invisible   avia-builder-el-4  el_after_av_one_full  el_before_av_one_full '><span class='hr-inner ' ><span class='hr-inner-style'><\/span><\/span><\/div><\/p>\n<div class=\"flex_column av_one_full  flex_column_div av-zero-column-padding first  avia-builder-el-5  el_after_av_hr  el_before_av_hr  \" style='border-radius:0px; '><div  style=' margin-top:30px; margin-bottom:30px;'  class='hr hr-custom hr-center hr-icon-no   avia-builder-el-6  avia-builder-el-no-sibling '><span class='hr-inner   inner-border-av-border-thin' style=' width:1100px;' ><span class='hr-inner-style'><\/span><\/span><\/div><\/div>\n<div  style='height:1px; margin-top:-50px'  class='hr hr-invisible   avia-builder-el-7  el_after_av_one_full  el_before_av_one_full '><span class='hr-inner ' ><span class='hr-inner-style'><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"flex_column av_one_full  flex_column_div av-zero-column-padding first  avia-builder-el-8  el_after_av_hr  el_before_av_hr  \" style='border-radius:0px; '><section class=\"av_textblock_section \"  itemscope=\"itemscope\" itemtype=\"https:\/\/schema.org\/BlogPosting\" itemprop=\"blogPost\" ><div class='avia_textblock  av_inherit_color '  style='font-size:25px; color:#999999; '  itemprop=\"text\" ><p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>Larsen\u2019s work brings new understanding to Earth\u2019s ionosphere, opening doors for wind and space research<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div><\/section><\/div>\n<div  style='height:1px; margin-top:-50px'  class='hr hr-invisible   avia-builder-el-10  el_after_av_one_full  el_before_av_one_full '><span class='hr-inner ' ><span class='hr-inner-style'><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"flex_column av_one_full  flex_column_div av-zero-column-padding first  avia-builder-el-11  el_after_av_hr  el_before_av_one_full  \" style='border-radius:0px; '><div  style=' margin-top:30px; margin-bottom:30px;'  class='hr hr-custom hr-center hr-icon-no   avia-builder-el-12  avia-builder-el-no-sibling '><span class='hr-inner   inner-border-av-border-thin' style=' width:1100px;' ><span class='hr-inner-style'><\/span><\/span><\/div><\/div>\n<div class=\"flex_column av_one_full  flex_column_div av-zero-column-padding first  avia-builder-el-13  el_after_av_one_full  el_before_av_hr  column-top-margin\" style='border-radius:0px; '><section class=\"av_textblock_section \"  itemscope=\"itemscope\" itemtype=\"https:\/\/schema.org\/BlogPosting\" itemprop=\"blogPost\" ><div class='avia_textblock  av_inherit_color '  style='font-size:19px; color:#000000; '  itemprop=\"text\" ><p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">M<\/span><span class=\"s2\">iguel Larsen<\/span> <span class=\"s1\">has dedicated his career to measuring and interpreting upper <\/span>atmospheric winds in the ionosphere, a dynamic region about 60 miles from the Earth\u2019s surface. Perhaps his biggest discovery was that wind speeds in this region are significantly stronger than what conventional scientific models expected.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p3\">His findings have helped scientists devise better models of the electromagnetic regions of space, which can damage satellites and disrupt radio communications. They have also helped explain how ash and particles from volcanic eruptions are transported around the world so rapidly.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p3\">\u201cWhat became apparent is there are very large winds in this region, and they produce a very rapid global transport,\u201d Larsen says.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p3\">In the process of making these measurements, Larsen, professor emeritus of physics and astronomy in Clemson\u2019s College of Science, has become one of the world\u2019s leading authorities on using sounding rockets and luminescent vapor trails to record the winds. He has also developed triangulation techniques to accurately determine wind profiles and their evolution over time.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p3\">The rockets, which fly for about 10 minutes, release into the upper atmosphere tiny amounts of illuminating agents similar to the elements used in standard fireworks displays. These vapor tracers produce a colorful three-dimensional grid in the night sky. Teams of researchers at three locations on the ground then capture high-resolution video and still images of the bright display. From there, researchers are able to calculate the wind speed.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p3\">Larsen has demonstrated that intense shears from large amplitude winds were causing mysterious quasi-periodic radar echoes observed in the lower ionosphere at night, a phenomenon that had puzzled researchers for decades.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p3\">During his prolific career, Larsen has designed and built experiments that were flown on 100 NASA sounding rockets launched at high, mid- and low latitudes. Research colleagues from around the world regularly seek his counsel and expertise.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p3\">Larsen was the lead investigator on NASA\u2019s Cusp-Heating Investigation mission, which launched in December 2019 off the coast of northern Norway. The mission measures the flow of plasmas and gases in the northern polar cusp, a region where satellites, GPS and spacecraft could encounter problems. It is one of three missions that make up the Grand Challenge Initiative \u2013 Cusp, a series of nine sounding rocket missions exploring the polar cusp.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p3\">In August 2019, NASA recognized Larsen with its Distinguished Public Service Medal \u2014 the highest honor the space agency bestows to nongovernment personnel \u2014 for his \u201cpioneering research to measure vertical profiles of the Earth\u2019s upper atmospheric winds and leading over 100 NASA sounding rockets during 40 years of research.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div><\/section><\/div>\n<div  style='height:100px' class='hr hr-invisible   avia-builder-el-15  el_after_av_one_full  el_before_av_comments_list '><span class='hr-inner ' ><span class='hr-inner-style'><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<div  class='av-buildercomment   '><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Miguel Larsen\u2019s work brings new understanding to Earth\u2019s ionosphere, opening doors for wind and space research<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":21969,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4],"tags":[229,237,240,239,241,238],"coauthors":[16],"class_list":["post-21968","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-faculty-profiles","tag-2020-faculty-profiles","tag-ionosphere","tag-nasa","tag-space-research","tag-weather","tag-wind-research"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/clemson.world\/research\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2020\/02\/Miguel-Larsen.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9IEky-5Ik","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/clemson.world\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21968","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/clemson.world\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/clemson.world\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clemson.world\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clemson.world\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21968"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/clemson.world\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21968\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clemson.world\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21969"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/clemson.world\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21968"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clemson.world\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21968"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clemson.world\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21968"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clemson.world\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=21968"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}