Marty Mlynczak, a researcher at NASA’s Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia, has been awarded the 2020 Coupling of Energetics and Dynamics of Atmospheric Regions (CEDAR) Prize Lecture.
CEDAR is an upper atmosphere research program sponsored by the National Science Foundation. The CEDAR community meets annually and awards the prize lecture to scientists for their contributions to CEDAR science and the CEDAR community.
Because of COVID-19, Mlynczak will not be able to deliver the prize lecture in person until 2021, but the community has invited him to give a short video presentation for its 2020 virtual meeting, which will take place June 21-26. The in-person lecture in 2021 will be Mlynczak’s 100th invited lecture dating back to 1991.
“I’ve enjoyed being part of the CEDAR community for many years,” said Mlynczak. “It is a great scientific and educational program. I’m honored to receive this year’s prize lecture.”
Mlynczak studies the effects of the variability of the Sun and the buildup of carbon dioxide on the temperature and composition of Earth’s high atmosphere (30 to 150 miles above Earth’s surface). He uses instruments on orbiting satellites to observe the high atmosphere and diagnose these effects.
Temperature variations in Earth’s high atmosphere can affect the drag on satellites in low-Earth orbit, but cause no corresponding temperature changes in the troposphere, the layer of the atmosphere closest to Earth’s surface where people live.
—NASA Langley Research Center