Dr. Thompson is active planning, conducting and analyzing field data from NASA aircraft experiments, particularly those involving the link between chemistry and convection and biomass burning effects on ozone. She was Co-Mission Scientist for the 1997 DC-8 aircraft campaign, SONEX (SASS Ozone and Nitrogen Experiment), showing that lightning and convection affect the North Atlantic upper troposphere along with subsonic aviation. Dr. Thompson is PI for the SHADOZ Project, archiving tropical southern hemisphere ozonesonde data for satellite validation. In 2004 she led the INTEX ozonesonde network study that collected an unprecedented 300 soundings in North America within six weeks.
In 2006, Dr. Thompson organized IONS-06 with 23 North American sites and led Penn State field work in Mexico City, Houston and Washington state. On NASA's TC4 campaign in 2007, Dr. Thompson led NATIVE and a Penn State Team investigated tropical chemistry and convection in Panama. In 2008, Dr. Thompson once again led the Penn State Team in Yellowknife, Canada as part of NASA's ARCTAS campaign and ARCIONS.
Dr. Thompson also teaches several courses within the Meteorology Department at Penn State with topics ranging from atmospheric chemistry to biogeochemical cycles. To learn more about her classes, or access course material, please use the class links above.
Dr. Thompson preparing to launch an ozonesonde.
Question or comments about the website should be directed to Alaina at aml5002@psu.edu