Kathryn Steakley

Affiliation: NASA Ames Research Center (ARC)

Division: Space Science and Astrobiology Division (ST)

Branch: Planetary Systems Branch (STT)

Email: kathryn.e.steakley@nasa.gov

Phone: 650-604-6078

Websites: MCMC Homepage

Professional Biography

I am a civil servant scientist and member of the Mars Climate Modeling Center (MCMC) at NASA Ames. My research interests include the early Martian climate, the influences of water clouds, CO₂ clouds, and dust in Mars’ atmosphere past and present, and habitability of planetary atmospheres. Before becoming a civil servant in 2022, I worked with the MCMC at Ames as a scientist with the Bay Area Environmental Research Institute. I joined the MCMC at NASA Ames in 2018 as a postdoctoral fellow studying the potential climate effects of asteroid impacts on early Mars that may have delivered reducing greenhouse gases. I earned my PhD from New Mexico State University in 2018 where my research focused on the potential for impacts on early Mars to induce water cloud greenhouse warming, as well as investigating pressure signatures of dust devils in Gale Crater.

Education

Ph.D. Astronomy, New Mexico State University – 2018

M.S. Astronomy, New Mexico State University – 2016

B.S. Double Major in Physics and Astronomy, University of Washington – 2012

Research Interests

Mars paleoclimate, Mars atmosphere, planetary science, planetary atmospheres, numerical modeling, atmospheric dynamics, atmospheric composition.

Select Publications

Steakley, K.E., Kahre, M.A. & Haberle, R.M. (2025). The effects of CO₂ clouds on the thermal structure of the early Martian atmosphere. Icarus, 440. doi:10.1016/j.icarus.2025.116663

Kahre, M.A., Haberle, R.M., Wilson, R.J., Urata, R.A., Steakley, K.E., Brecht, A.S., Bertrand, T., Kling, A.L.M., Batterson, C.M.L., Hartwick, V.L., Harman, C.E. & Gkouvelis, L. (2023). The NASA Ames legacy Mars global climate model: Radiation code error correction and new baseline water cycle simulation. Icarus, 400, 115561–115561. doi:10.1016/j.icarus.2023.115561

Steakley, K.E., Kahre, M.A., Haberle, R.M. & Zahnle, K.J. (2023). Impact induced H₂-rich climates on early Mars explored with a global climate model. Icarus, 394, 115401–115401. doi:10.1016/j.icarus.2022.115401

Wordsworth, R., Knoll, A. H., Hurowitz, J., Baum, M., Ehlmann, B. L., Head, J.W. & Steakley, K.E. (2021). A coupled model of episodic warming, oxidation and geochemical transitions on early Mars. Nature Geoscience, 14(3), 127–132. doi:10.1038/s41561-021-00701-8

Steakley, K.E., Murphy, J., Kahre, M.A., Haberle, R.M. & Kling, A.L.M. (2019). Testing the impact heating hypothesis for early Mars with a 3-D global climate model. Icarus, 330, 169–188. doi:10.1016/j.icarus.2019.04.005

Haberle, R.M., Zahnle, K., Barlow, N.G. & Steakley, K.E. (2019). Impact Degassing of H₂ on Early Mars and its Effect on the Climate System. GRL, 46(22), 13355–13362. doi:10.1029/2019GL084733

Murphy, J., Steakley, K., Balme, M., Deprez, G., Esposito, F., Kahanpää, H., Lemmon, M., Lorenz, R., Murdoch, N., Neakrase, L., Patel, M., and Whelley, P. (2016). Field Measurements of Terrestrial and Martian Dust Devils. Space Science Reviews, 203, 39-87. doi:10.1007/s11214-016-0283-y.Steakley, K. and Murphy, J. (2016). A year of convective vortex activity at Gale Crater. Icarus, 278, 180-193. doi:10.1016/j.icarus.2016.06.010

Technologies & Software

NASA Ames MCMC (2024, December 6). Ames Mars GCM (Version 3.2) [Computer software]. NASA GitHub. doi: 10.25966/ty4s-w176

NASA Ames MCMC (2024, January 17). Ames Mars GCM (Version 3.1) [Computer software]. NASA GitHub. doi: 10.25966/ty4s-w176

NASA Ames MCMC (2023, November 29). Ames Mars GCM (Version 3.0) [Computer software]. NASA GitHub. doi: 10.25966/ty4s-w176

NASA Ames MCMC (2025). Community Analysis Pipeline (Version 4.0) [Computer software]. NASA Planetary Science GitHub.

NASA Ames MCMC (2024, August 14). Data Portal Web Interface [Web tool]. NASA Ames Research Center, NASA.

NASA Ames MCMC (2023, April 12). NASA Ames Legacy Mars Global Climate Model [Computer software]. NASA GitHub. doi: 10.25966/3tpw-nt26

NASA Ames MCMC (2023). Beta Output Release 1 [Data set]. NASA Ames Mars Climate Modeling Center Data Portal. doi: 10.25966/rjgg-r639NASA Ames MCMC (2023). Legacy Output Release [Data set]. NASA Ames Mars Climate Modeling Center Data Portal. doi: 10.25966/3tpw-nt26