Dr. Anderson is a planetary astronomer in the Planetary Systems Laboratory at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center. Her research focuses on the remote sensing of planetary atmospheres, primarily in the areas of thermal structure and composition, using space- and ground-based data. This includes radiative transfer analyses of the outer planets, including the effects of aerosols and condensates, as well as data analysis techniques in the visible, near-IR, mid-IR, far-IR, and submillimeter spectral regions. Dr. Anderson's research also includes transmission spectroscopy measurements of thin ice films using her SPECtroscospy of Titan-Related ice AnaLogs (SPECTRAL) high-vacuum ice chamber located in her Spectroscopy for Planetary ICes Environments (SPICE) laboratory.
Dr. Anderson's most recent research highlight includes her discovery of a chemically new, high-altitude ice cloud residing in Titan's south polar stratosphere during Titan's early southern winter season, chemically consistent with co-condensed hydrogen cyanide and benzene. During her 12-year tenure on the Cassini Composite InfraRed Spectrometer (CIRS) team, Dr. Anderson also discovered additional ice clouds in Titan's stratosphere, including a co-condensed ice mixture containing hydrogen cyanide and cyanoacetylene, methane ice clouds formed via subsidence in Titan's lower stratosphere, the solid-state photochemical formation of dicyanoacetylene ice -- co-condensed with hydrogen cyanide ice -- in Titan's early northern spring stratosphere, as well as the discovery that Titan's photochemical aerosol is chemically uniform throughout the atmosphere at altitudes below the stratopause. Dr. Anderson has been heavily engaged in the Phase E part of the Cassini/Huygens mission in the Saturn system, through both data analyses and Cassini CIRS instrument operations.
Dr. Anderson is heavily engaged in technology maturation efforts for planetary flight instruments as well as planetary flight mission concepts. She is currently the Institutional PI on the Submillimeter Solar Observation Lunar Volatiles Experiment (SSOLVE), which is a submillimeter heterodyne flight spectrometer that is currently under development to study the Moon's exosphere. She is PI on the Venus Wideband Submillimeter Heterodyne Spectrometer, which is a submillimeter heterodyne flight spectrometer that is currently under development to study Venus' middle atmosphere. She is also the PI of the Enceladus Ice Spectrometer (EIS), which is a far- and mid-IR flight spectrometer that is currently under development to study Enceladus' plumes. She is also the Deputy Project Scientist and Planetary Science Lead on the Astrophysics MIDEX mission concept called the Orbiting Astronomical Satellite for Investigating Stellar Systems (OASIS). Lastly, she is the Deputy Project Scientist and Planetary Science Lead on the Astrophysics Probe mission concept called the Single Aperture Large Telescope for Universe Studies (SALTUS).