Dr. Benson's main research interests are in linear and nonlinear plasma wave phenomena, ionospheric and magnetospheric physics, and planetary radio emissions. His approach has been to use the terrestrial ionosphere and magnetosphere as a space plasma laboratory. This system is the most readily accessible space plasma for cost-effective high-resolution in situ and remote investigations and some of the processes operating there have similar counterparts elsewhere in astrophysical plasmas. A prime example is the stimulus provided by investigations of auroral kilometric radiation (AKR) to research into the cyclotron maser instability as an important astrophysical radiation mechanism. Another is the application of knowledge gained from the analysis of stimulated plasma emissions in the Earth's ionosphere to the understanding of natural emissions in the Earth's magnetosphere and Jupiter's Io plasma torus and using this knowledge to deduce electron number densities and magnetic field strengths. This research has been mainly based on the analysis of data from ionospheric topside sounders on the Alouette and ISIS satellites, passive receivers on ISSE 3, the low-power sounder (relaxation sounder) on the Ulysses spacecraft, and the bi-static sounder on the joint Canadian/US OEDIPUS C sounding-rocket experiment. Dr. Benson is leading an effort to produce digital records from a selected portion of the original Alouette/ISIS analog telemetry tapes see http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/space/isis/isis-status.htm. Since some of these data were never processed earlier, the project is essentially providing the unique opportunity of a new satellite mission with old data. He is also a participating scientist on the IMAGE mission (Imager for Magnetopause-to-Aurora Global Exploration) which has been selected for flight on the first Medium-class Explorer (MIDEX) where he is involved in the planning for the Radio Plasma Imager (RPI) to be flown as part of the IMAGE payload which is scheduled for launch on February 15, 2000 http://image.gsfc.nasa.gov/.
Positions and Appointments
Astrophysicist, Geospace Physics Laboratory
Heliophysics Science Division
NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center
1990 - 1993 -- Chair, International URSI Commission H (Waves in Plasmas)
1988 - 1993 -- NASA member of NATO/AGARD Electromagnetic Wave Propagation Panel
1984 - 1986 -- International URSI Comm. H Editor for Review of Radio Science
1982 - 1984 -- Chair, US National Committee for URSI Commission H
1965 - present -- NASA/GSFC Space Scientist
1964 - 1965 -- NASA/NRC Postdoctoral Research Associate, GSFC
1963 - 1964 -- Asst. Prof., Astronomy Dept., Univ. of Minnesota
1963 -- Asst. Geophysicist, Geophysical Inst. Univ. of Alaska
1959 - 1963 -- Research Associate, Geophysical Inst., Univ. of Alaska
1958 - 1959 -- Teaching Asst. (Phys.); T & R Asst. (Astronomy), Univ. of Minn.
1956 - 1958 -- IGY Scientist in Antarctica, Arctic Inst. of North America
1955 - 1956 -- Research & Teaching Asst., Univ. of Minnesota
Education
B.S., Geophysics, Univ. of Minnesota, 1956
M.S., Physics, Univ. of Minnesota, 1959
Ph.D., Geophysics, Univ. of Alaska, 1963
