Dr. Helen Amos is an Applications Scientist on the Goddard Applied Sciences team. Her role is to facilitate the use of Goddard research and data products toward addressing environmental health challenges. Her current focus is on climate, air quality, and natural disasters. Previously at NASA, Dr. Amos was the Science Outreach Lead for GLOBE Observer. She was in environmental consulting before starting her career in government. Dr. Amos received her PhD in atmospheric chemistry from Harvard University, postdoc'd at the Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health, and did a AAAS Science & Technology Policy Fellow at the US Environmental Protection Agency. ORCiD 0000-0002-0297-6643.
Helen M Amos
(SR. RESEARCH SCIENTIST)
| Email: | helen.m.amos@nasa.gov |
| Phone: | 301.286.8417 |
| Org Code: | 610 |
| Address: |
NASA/GSFC Mail Code 610 Greenbelt, MD 20771 |
| Employer: | SCIENCE SYSTEMS AND APPLICATIONS INC |
Brief Bio
Publications
Refereed
2023. "Public Health Data Applications Using the CDC Tracking Network: Augmenting Environmental Hazard Information With Lower‐Latency NASA Data." GeoHealth 7 (12): [10.1029/2023gh000971] [Journal Article/Letter]
2020. "GLOBE Observer Data: 2016–2019." Earth and Space Science 7 (8): [Full Text] [10.1029/2020ea001175] [Journal Article/Letter]
2020. "Clouds Around the World: How a Simple Citizen Science Data Challenge Became a Worldwide Success." Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society 101 (7): 1201-1213 [https://doi.org/10.1175/BAMS-D-19-0295.1] [Journal Article/Letter]
2019. "Integrating Open Innovation into the Core of Federal R&D Strategy." Journal of Science Policy & Governance 15 (1): [Full Text] [Journal Article/Letter]
2019. "Science needs for continued development of total nitrogen deposition budgets in the United States." Science of the Total Environment 691 1328-1352 [Full Text] [https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2019.07.058] [Journal Article/Letter]
2019. "Atmospheric concentrations and wet/dry loadings of mercury at the remote Experimental Lakes Area, northwestern Ontario, Canada." Environmental Science & Technology 53 (14): 8017-8026 [https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.est.9b01338] [Journal Article/Letter]
2019. "A global 3-D ocean model for polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs): Benchmark compounds for understanding the impacts of global change on neutral persistent organic pollutants." Global Biogeochemical Cycles [10.1029/2018gb006018] [Journal Article/Letter]
2019. "Modelling the mercury stable isotope distribution of Earth surface reservoirs: Implications for global Hg cycling." Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta 246 156-173 [10.1016/j.gca.2018.11.036] [Journal Article/Letter]
2018. "What Goes Up Must Come Down: Integrating Air and Water Quality Monitoring for Nutrients." Environmental Science & Technology 52 (20): 11441-11448 [10.1021/acs.est.8b03504] [Journal Article/Letter]
2017. "A new mechanism for atmospheric mercury redox chemistry: implications for the global mercury budget." Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics 17 (10): 6353-6371 [10.5194/acp-17-6353-2017] [Journal Article/Letter]
2017. "Toward an Assessment of the Global Inventory of Present-Day Mercury Releases to Freshwater Environments." International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health 14 (2): 138 [10.3390/ijerph14020138] [Journal Article/Letter]
2016. "Historical (1850–2010) mercury stable isotope inventory from anthropogenic sources to the atmosphere." Elementa: Science of the Anthropocene 4 000091 [10.12952/journal.elementa.000091] [Journal Article/Letter]
2016. "Observed decrease in atmospheric mercury explained by global decline in anthropogenic emissions." Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 113 (3): 526-531 [10.1073/pnas.1516312113] [Journal Article/Letter]
2015. "Biogeochemical drivers of the fate of riverine mercury discharged to the global and Arctic oceans." Global Biogeochemical Cycles 29 (6): 854-864 [10.1002/2015gb005124] [Journal Article/Letter]
2015. "Measuring and modeling mercury in the atmosphere: a critical review." Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics 15 (10): 5697-5713 [10.5194/acp-15-5697-2015] [Journal Article/Letter]
2015. "Observational and Modeling Constraints on Global Anthropogenic Enrichment of Mercury." Environmental Science & Technology 49 (7): 4036-4047 [10.1021/es5058665] [Journal Article/Letter]
2015. "Use of a global model to understand speciated atmospheric mercury observations at five high-elevation sites." Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics 15 (3): 1161-1173 [10.5194/acp-15-1161-2015] [Journal Article/Letter]
2014. "Historical Mercury Releases from Commercial Products: Global Environmental Implications." Environmental Science & Technology 48 (17): 10242-10250 [10.1021/es501337j] [Journal Article/Letter]
2014. "Global Biogeochemical Implications of Mercury Discharges from Rivers and Sediment Burial." Environmental Science & Technology 48 (16): 9514-9522 [10.1021/es502134t] [Journal Article/Letter]
2014. "Progress on Understanding Atmospheric Mercury Hampered by Uncertain Measurements." Environmental Science & Technology 48 (13): 7204-7206 [10.1021/es5026432] [Journal Article/Letter]
2014. "WAIS Divide ice core suggests sustained changes in the atmospheric formation pathways of sulfate and nitrate since the 19th century in the extratropical Southern Hemisphere." Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics 14 (11): 5749-5769 [10.5194/acp-14-5749-2014] [Journal Article/Letter]
2013. "Factors driving mercury variability in the Arctic atmosphere and ocean over the past 30 years." Global Biogeochemical Cycles 27 (4): 1226-1235 [10.1002/2013gb004689] [Journal Article/Letter]
2013. "Legacy impacts of all-time anthropogenic emissions on the global mercury cycle." Global Biogeochemical Cycles 27 (2): 410-421 [10.1002/gbc.20040] [Journal Article/Letter]
2012. "Oxygen isotope exchange with quartz during pyrolysis of silver sulfate and silver nitrate." Rapid Communications in Mass Spectrometry 26 (18): 2151-2157 [10.1002/rcm.6332] [Journal Article/Letter]
2012. "Nested-grid simulation of mercury over North America." Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics 12 (14): 6095-6111 [10.5194/acp-12-6095-2012] [Journal Article/Letter]
2012. "Riverine source of Arctic Ocean mercury inferred from atmospheric observations." Nature Geoscience 5 (7): 499-504 [10.1038/ngeo1478] [Journal Article/Letter]
2012. "Isotopic constraints on the formation pathways of sulfate aerosol in the marine boundary layer of the subtropical northeast Atlantic Ocean." Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres 117 (D6): [10.1029/2011jd016773] [Journal Article/Letter]
2012. "Gas-particle partitioning of atmospheric Hg(II) and its effect on global mercury deposition." Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics 12 (1): 591-603 [10.5194/acp-12-591-2012] [Journal Article/Letter]
2010. "Sulfate sources and oxidation chemistry over the past 230 years from sulfur and oxygen isotopes of sulfate in a West Antarctic ice core." Journal of Geophysical Research 115 (D18): D18313 [10.1029/2010jd013846] [Journal Article/Letter]
Non-Refereed
2021. "File Specification for MERRA-2 Country-Level Surface PM2.5 Monthly Mean Products." GMAO Office Note No. 20 (Version 1.0): 10 [Full Text] [Other]
Education
Harvard University, Department of Earth & Planetary Sciences, PhD, 2009-2014.
University of Washington, Department of Atmospheric Sciences, BS, 2005-2009.
Positions/Employment
Supervisory Research Scientist
Science Systems and Applications, Inc. - NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD
September 2022 - Present
Lead Research Scientist
Science Systems and Applications, Inc. - NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Maryland
April 2022 - August 2022
Senior Research Scientist
Science Systems and Applications, Inc. - NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Maryland, USA
September 2018 - March 2022
AAAS Science & Technology Policy Fellow
US Environmental Protection Agency - Washington, DC, USA
September 2016 - August 2018
Research Scientist
Amos Environmental, LLC - Washington, DC, USA
February 2016 - August 2016
Postdoctoral Fellow
Harvard University, TH Chan School of Public Health - Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA
June 2014 - January 2016
Awards
NASA Robert H. Goddard Award - Science, 2023
Science Systems and Applications, Inc. (SSAI) Performance Award - Customer, 2022
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC), Exceptional Achievement for Mission and Enabling Support, Applied Sciences Team, 2022
NASA Agency Honor Award, Group Achievement, The GLOBE Program, 2021
Science Systems and Applications, Inc. (SSAI) Performance Award, 2021
Science Systems and Applications, Inc. (SSAI) Early Career Award, 2019
National Science Foundation (NSF) Graduate Research Fellowship, 2011-2014
American Meteorological Society (AMS) Fellowship, sponsored by NASA’s Earth Science Division, 2009-2010
Washington Scholar, 2005-2009
Teaching Experience
Teaching Fellow for Engineering Sciences 169: Seminar on Global Pollution Issues: Case Study of Mercury Biogeochemistry, Professor Elsie M. Sunderland, Spring Semester 2013
Teaching Fellow for Earth & Planetary Sciences 200: Atmospheric Chemistry (Graduate Level), Harvard University, Professor Daniel J. Jacob, Fall Semester 2010
Teaching Fellow for Engineering Sceinces 6: Intro to Environmental Science and Technology (Undergraduate Level), Harvard University, Professor Scot Martin, Spring Semester 2011
Professional Societies
American Association for the Advancement of Science
2016 - Present
American Geophysical Union
2009 - Present
Earth Science Women's Network
2009 - Present
Earth Science Information Partners
GLOBE Representative
2019 - 2020
Citizen Science Association
2018 - 2020
Selected Public Outreach
Girl Scout Expo
December 2019 - December 2019
Outreach for The GLOBE Program. Expo was attended by 10,000 Girl Scouts and their familes.
NASA Earth Day
May 2019 - May 2019
NASA Earth Day Events at Union Station in downtown Washington, DC. Open to the public.
STEM Girls Night In
December 2018 - December 2018
High school-aged girls hosted at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center for an overnight experience with learning activities, team building, and face-to-face interactions with women scientists and engineers (and an astronaut!).