Sciences and Exploration Directorate

Steven Daniel Christe

(RSCH AST, SOLAR & SOLAR TRSTRL STD)

Steven Daniel Christe's Contact Card & Information.
Email: steven.d.christe@nasa.gov
Phone: 301.286.7152
Org Code: 670
Address:
NASA/GSFC
Mail Code 670
Greenbelt, MD 20771
Employer:
NASA

Brief Bio


Dr. Steven Christe is a research astrophysicist in the Heliophysics division at the Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. His science interests focus on hard X-ray emission from solar flares and the quiet Sun with particular emphasis on the statistics of small transient bursts such as solar microflares; hard X-ray emission associated with solar radio emission; and the application of hard X-ray focusing optics to solar observations. Dr. Christe completed his Ph.D. in 2007, under the supervision of Dr. S. Krucker and Prof. R. P. Lin. After a short postdoctoral appointment at the Space Sciences Lab, he accepted a permanent position at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center. He led the first launch of the FOXSI sounding rocket. Short for the Focusing Optics X-ray Solar Imager, FOXSI observed a microflare in hard X-rays for the first time using grazing-incidence optics. He was also the solar PI for HEROES, a joint mission between MSFC and GSFC, which modified and flew an existing astrophysics balloon payload to observe the Sun in hard X-rays for the first time using hard x-ray focusing optics. Dr. Christe was the PI for the FOXSI Small Explorer mission concept which was selected for a Phase A study. Steven served as the Heliophysics Line of Business Manager overseeing all proposals for flight instruments lead by Goddard Space Flight Center. Currently Dr. Christe is the Lead Scientist for the Heliophysics Strategic Technology Office (HESTO), the PI for an X-ray instrument which will fly on a small Sat mission called PADRE to study the acceleration mechanism in solar flares, and leading the HERMES Science Operations Center. HERMES is a instrument suite focused on space weather that will fly on the Lunar Gateway.

ORCID Github

Research Interests


Solar flares, coronal heating

Heliophysics: Solar Atmosphere

Current Projects


FOXSI Sounding Rocket

Transient Events

 Short for the Focusing Optics X-ray Solar Imager, FOXSI is a sounding rocket payload to apply hard x-ray grazing incidence optics coupled to solid-state pixelated detectors to solar observations.

Positions/Employment


Heliophysics Strategic Technology Office (HESTO) Lead Scientist

NASA HQ - NASA Goddard

July 2022 - Present

As the technology program within NASA’s Heliophysics Science Division (HSD), HESTO funds new technologies that can improve Heliophysics science research. We work with researchers and scientists to help solve technological challenges inherent in space-based observations to better understand our heliosphere and the dynamic, interrelated systems contained within it. Through an open and competitive solicitation process, we provide grants to universities, corporations, NASA Centers, and other institutions to explore new instrument designs and technologies.

Education


PhD. in Physics from University of California - Berkeley, 2007

M.S. in Physics, University of California at Berkeley, 2006

B.S. in Physics, State University of New York at Stony Brook, 2001

B.S. in Mathematics, State University of New York at Stony Brook, 2001

Awards


2010 NASA Special ACT Individual Award
2013 RHESSI Science and Data Analysis Team NASA Group Achievement Award
2014 NASA Performance Award
2014 HOPE-HEROES NASA Group Achievement Award
2014 HEROES NASA Special ACT Team Award
2014 NASA Five Year Service Award
2015 FOXSI Team NASA RHG Exceptional Achievement for Science Team Award

Publications


Refereed

2014. "Astrophysical Observations with the HEROES Balloon-borne Payload." American Astronomical Society Meeting Abstracts 223 #136.03- [Journal Article/Letter]

2013. "High Energy Replicated Optics to Explore the Sun: Hard X-ray balloon-borne telescope." Proceedings of the 2013 IEEE Aerospace Conference [-10.1109/AERO.2013.6497198] [Journal Article/Letter]

2013. "Solar Eruptive Events (SEE) 2020 Mission Concept." ArXiv e-prints arXiv:1311.5243- [Journal Article/Letter]

2013. "Results from the first flight of the Focusing Optics X-ray Solar Imager (FOXSI) sounding rocket." AAS/Solar Physics Division Meeting 44 #200.04- [Journal Article/Letter]

2013. "The Focusing Optics X-ray Solar Imager (FOXSI): Instrument and First Flight." AAS/High Energy Astrophysics Division 13 #123.14- [Journal Article/Letter]

2012. "SunPy: Python for Solar Physics Data Analysis." American Astronomical Society Meeting Abstracts #220 220 #522.07- [Journal Article/Letter]

2012. "Constraining Differential Emission Measure and Energy Estimates for Microflares and Active Regions by Combining SDO/AIA and RHESSI." American Astronomical Society Meeting Abstracts #220 220 #509.05- [Journal Article/Letter]

2011. "The Relationship Between Solar Radio and Hard X-ray Emission." Space Science Reviews 159 225-261 [10.1007/s11214-010-9708-1] [Journal Article/Letter]

2011. "The Focusing Optics X-ray Solar Imager." Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society 1511- [Journal Article/Letter]

2011. "Solar Eruptive Events (SEE) Mission for the Next Solar Maximum." Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society 2204- [Journal Article/Letter]

2011. "The RHESSI Microflare Height Distribution." Solar Physics 270 493-502 [10.1007/s11207-011-9777-7] [Journal Article/Letter]

2011. "Microflares and the Statistics of X-ray Flares." Space Science Reviews 159 263-300 [10.1007/s11214-010-9705-4] [Journal Article/Letter]

2011. "Estimates of Densities and Filling Factors from a Cooling Time Analysis of Solar Microflares Observed with RHESSI." The Astrophysical Journal 736 [75-10.1088/0004-637X/736/1/75] [Journal Article/Letter]

2011. "Electron Acceleration Associated with Solar Jets." The Astrophysical Journal 742 [82-10.1088/0004-637X/742/2/82] [Journal Article/Letter]

2011. "Transient phenomena and thermal evolution during the Boss' Day flare of 2010 October 16 with AIA, EVE and RHESSI." AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts A1902- [Journal Article/Letter]

2011. "The flare productivity of active regions." AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts 1946- [Journal Article/Letter]

2011. "Automatic Detection and Characterization of EIT waves observed by AIA Data." AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts 1958- [Journal Article/Letter]

2011. "Suzaku/WAM and RHESSI observation of non-thermal electrons in solar microflares." AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts A1908- [Journal Article/Letter]

2011. "Photospheric Magnetic Evolution in the WHI Active Regions." Solar Physics 274 131-157 [10.1007/s11207-011-9759-9] [Journal Article/Letter]

2010. "Science Objectives for an X-Ray Microcalorimeter Observing the Sun." ArXiv e-prints arXiv:1011.4052- [Journal Article/Letter]

2010. "The Focusing Optics X-Ray Solar Imager." LPI Contributions 1534 30- [Journal Article/Letter]

2010. "Solar flare impulsive phase observations from SDO and other observatories." AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts A1832- [Journal Article/Letter]

2010. "SDO and RHESSI Observations of Microflares." AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts A1830- [Journal Article/Letter]

2010. "The flare productivity of active regions." AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts 1638- [Journal Article/Letter]

2009. "The Focusing Optics X-ray Solar Imager." Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society 41 #475.08- [Journal Article/Letter]

2009. "Relationship between flare X-rays and photospheric magnetic fields." AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts A1521- [Journal Article/Letter]

2009. "The Focusing Optics X-ray Solar Imager." Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society 41 #475.08- [Journal Article/Letter]

2009. "The Focusing Optics Solar X-ray Imager (FOXSI)." AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts 1496- [Journal Article/Letter]

2009. "The RHESSI Microflare Height Distribution." AAS/Solar Physics Division Meeting #40 40 #19.03- [Journal Article/Letter]

2008. "Hard X-Rays Associated with Type III Radio Bursts." The Astrophysical Journal 680 L149-L152 [10.1086/589971] [Journal Article/Letter]

2008. "RHESSI Microflare Statistics. I. Flare-Finding and Frequency Distributions." The Astrophysical Journal 677 1385-1394 [10.1086/529011] [Journal Article/Letter]

2008. "RHESSI Microflare Statistics. II. X-Ray Imaging, Spectroscopy, and Energy Distributions." The Astrophysical Journal 677 704-718 [10.1086/529012] [Journal Article/Letter]

2008. "An intriguing solar microflare observed with RHESSI, Hinode, and TRACE." Astronomy and Astrophysics 481 L45-L48 [10.1051/0004-6361:20079019] [Journal Article/Letter]

2008. "Microflares with RHESSI and Hinode/XRT." First Results From Hinode 397 169- [Journal Article/Letter]

2008. "Microflares with RHESSI and Hinode/XRT." First Results From Hinode 397 169- [Journal Article/Letter]

2008. "Coronal Hard X‐Ray Emission Associated with Radio Type III Bursts." The Astrophysical Journal 681 (1): 644-649 [10.1086/588549] [Journal Article/Letter]

2007. "X-ray Microflares with Hinode and RHESSI." AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts 7- [Journal Article/Letter]

2007. "RHESSI Microflare Statistics: X-ray Imaging And Spectral Analysis." Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society 39 213- [Journal Article/Letter]

2007. "Solar Flare Electron Spectra at the Sun and near the Earth." The Astrophysical Journal 663 L109-L112 [10.1086/519373] [Journal Article/Letter]

2007. "RHESSI Hard X-ray Microflare Statistics." AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts A849- [Journal Article/Letter]

2007. "X-ray Microflares with Hinode and RHESSI." AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts 7- [Journal Article/Letter]

2005. "Solar Impulsive Electron Events and RHESSI Hard X-ray Emission." AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts A4- [Journal Article/Letter]

2004. "The Microflare Frequency Distribution observed by RHESSI." Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society 36 818- [Journal Article/Letter]

2004. "RHESSI Observations of Hard X-ray Microflares with Interplanetary Type III Radio Bursts." Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society 36 758- [Journal Article/Letter]

2004. "Rhessi Microflare Statistics." SOHO 15 Coronal Heating 575 259- [Journal Article/Letter]

2004. "Nonthermal X-ray Microflares." AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts A3- [Journal Article/Letter]

2003. "RHESSI Observations of Two Occulted Solar Flares." Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society 35 841- [Journal Article/Letter]

2003. "Type III Radio Bursts and Microflares." Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society 35 830- [Journal Article/Letter]

2003. "RHESSI Microflares Statistics." AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts 167- [Journal Article/Letter]

2003. "First Detection of Hard X-ray Emission From Solar Type III Radio Bursts." AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts 1131- [Journal Article/Letter]

2002. "Hard X-ray Microflares down to 3~keV." AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts A484- [Journal Article/Letter]

2002. "RHESSI Observation of an Occulted Hard X-ray Flare." AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts A480- [Journal Article/Letter]

2001. "A single hollow-beam optical trap for cold atoms." Journal of Optics B: Quantum and Semiclassical Optics 3 353-357 [10.1088/1464-4266/3/6/301] [Journal Article/Letter]