Sciences and Exploration Directorate

Sanchita Pal

(Postdoctoral researcher)

Sanchita Pal's Contact Card & Information.
Email: sanchita.pal@nasa.gov
Org Code: 672
Address:
NASA/GSFC
Mail Code 672
Greenbelt, MD 20771
Employer: NPP POST-DOC CONTRACT

Brief Bio


Dr. Sanchita Pal is a NASA post-doctoral (NPP) fellow at the Heliophysics Science Division of the Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC). She graduated from the Center of Excellence in Space Sciences (CESSI) Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER) Kolkata with a Ph.D. in 2020. Her Ph.D. thesis focused on space weather drivers and their geoeffectiveness. She has a background in Electronics and Communication Engineering with a specialization in microwave and space science. Prior to joining as an NPP fellow she was a contractor post doctoral researcher at GSFC worked in the Solar Orbiter project. Before that she was a post-doctoral fellow in the space physics group at the Department of Physics, University of Helsinki, Finland. There she worked on an ERC Consolidator Grant project dealing with unraveling the structure of solar flux ropes and their magnetosheath (SolMAG).

Her research interests include investigating the solar origin, evolution, and geoeffectiveness of heliospheric large-scale structures specifically coronal mass ejections (CMEs) that are the major driver of space weather. She has expertise in various imaging and in situ satellite data analysis techniques, empirical and data-driven semi-analytical modeling of large-scale heliospheric structures and building machine learning models to apply on satellite data.

Positions/Employment


Post-doctoral fellow

University of Helsinki - Finland

June 2020 - May 2022

Exploring CME interplanetary evolution using observations from Parker Solar Probe, Solar Orbiter, and BepiColombo.


Post-doctoral fellow

NASA GSFC [George Mason University] - Greenbelt

June 2022 - August 2023

Large-scale magnetic structures' heliospheric evolutions and identifications using AI/ML algorithm.


NASA Post-doctoral (NPP) fellow

NASA Post-doctoral Program (NPP) - Greenbelt

September 2023 - Present

Erosion, automatic detection & classification of heliospheric flux ropes 

Teaching Experience


2018-2019

Served as a teaching assistant in 'Space Astronomy' Course in IISER Kolkata, India.

Education


  • Solar Science, Ph.D., Center of Excellence in Space Sciences (CESSI), Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER) - Kolkata, Award: 2020
  • Radio Physics and Electronics, Master's Degree, University of Calcutta, Award: 2015
  • Electronics and Communication Engineering, Bachelor's Degree, West Bengal University of Technology, Kolkata, India, Award year: 2015

Professional Societies


American Geophysical Union

Session Convenor

2021 - Present


European Geophysical Union

2021 - 2022

Awards


AGU Space Physics and Aeronomy Travel Grant

Pal, Sanchita (Recipient), 2018


SCOSTEP Visiting Scholarship (SVS-2017)

Pal, Sanchita (Recipient), 1 May 2017


Young Scientist Best Paper Award

Pal, Sanchita (Recipient), 7 Feb 2020

Grants


NASA Post Doctoral Program - NASA - Awarded: 2023-09-05


Dates:  - 

Publications


Refereed

2024. "The Loss of Starlink Satellites in February 2022: How Moderate Geomagnetic Storms Can Adversely Affect Assets in Low‐Earth Orbit." Space Weather 22 (4): e2023SW003716 [10.1029/2023sw003716] [Journal Article/Letter]

2023. "Global insight into a complex-structured heliosphere based on the local multi-point analysis." Frontiers in Astronomy and Space Sciences 10 [10.3389/fspas.2023.1195805] [Journal Article/Letter]

2023. "Redefining flux ropes in heliophysics." Frontiers in Astronomy and Space Sciences 10 [10.3389/fspas.2023.1114838] [Journal Article/Letter]

2022. "Magnetic cloud prediction model for forecasting space weather relevant properties of Earth-directed coronal mass ejections." Astronomy & Astrophysics 665 A110 [10.1051/0004-6361/202243513] [Journal Article/Letter]

2022. "Uncovering the process that transports magnetic helicity to coronal mass ejection flux ropes." Advances in Space Research 70 (6): 1601-1613 [10.1016/j.asr.2021.11.013] [Journal Article/Letter]

2022. "A Comparative Analysis of Machine-learning Models for Solar Flare Forecasting: Identifying High-performing Active Region Flare Indicators." The Astrophysical Journal 935 (1): 45 [10.3847/1538-4357/ac7955] [Journal Article/Letter]

2022. "Structure and fluctuations of a slow ICME sheath observed at 0.5 au by the Parker Solar Probe." Astronomy & Astrophysics 663 A108 [10.1051/0004-6361/202142191] [Journal Article/Letter]

2022. "Eruption and Interplanetary Evolution of a Stealthy Streamer-Blowout CME Observed by PSP at ∼0.5 AU." Frontiers in Astronomy and Space Sciences 9 [10.3389/fspas.2022.903676] [Journal Article/Letter]

2022. "A magnetic cloud prediction model for forecasting space weather relevant properties of Earth-directed coronal mass ejections." arXiv preprint arXiv:2203.05231 [Journal Article/Letter]

2021. "Predicting the Magnetic Fields of a Stealth CME Detected by Parker Solar Probe at 0.5 au." The Astrophysical Journal 920 (2): 65 [10.3847/1538-4357/ac25f4] [Journal Article/Letter]

2021. "Uncovering erosion effects on magnetic flux rope twist." Astronomy & Astrophysics 650 A176 [10.1051/0004-6361/202040070] [Journal Article/Letter]

2020. "Flux Erosion of Magnetic Clouds by Reconnection With the Sun's Open Flux." Geophysical Research Letters 47 (8): [10.1029/2019gl086372] [Journal Article/Letter]

2020. "Sunspot Cycle 25 is Brewing: Early Signs Herald its Onset." Research Notes of the AAS 4 (2): 30 [10.3847/2515-5172/ab79a1] [Journal Article/Letter]

2018. "Dependence of Coronal Mass Ejection Properties on Their Solar Source Active Region Characteristics and Associated Flare Reconnection Flux." The Astrophysical Journal 865 (1): 4 [10.3847/1538-4357/aada10] [Journal Article/Letter]

2017. "A Sun-to-Earth Analysis of Magnetic Helicity of the 2013 March 17–18 Interplanetary Coronal Mass Ejection." The Astrophysical Journal 851 (2): 123 [10.3847/1538-4357/aa9983] [Journal Article/Letter]

Talks, Presentations and Posters


Invited

Evolution of solar storms due to interplanetary interactions

2022

Organised by Zagreb Observatory on the Scientific Tuesday


Interplanetary evolution of CMEs due to magnetic reconnection with heliospheric fields

2021

Organised by Solar Orbiter working group meeting


Erosion of Coronal Mass Ejections Due to Magnetic Reconnections with the Ambient Interplanetary Magnetic Field

2019

Organised by High Altitude Observatory, Boulder, USA


Other

Prediction of earthbound coronal mass ejections

2022

Organized by 15th Quadrennial Solar-Terrestrial Physics Symposium (STP-15).


An approach for forecasting earthbound coronal mass ejections

2021

Organised by XVIIth Hvar Astrophysical Colloquium Programme


Magnetic content analysis of a streamer blowout CME and its interaction with the heliospheric current sheet in the inner heliosphere

2021

Organized by Parker One


Impact of Magnetic Reconnection on the Properties of Coronal Mass Ejections

2021

Organized by 43rd COSPAR Scientific Assembly: COSPAR 2021


Flux Erosion of Magnetic Clouds by Reconnection With the Sun’s Open Flux

2020

Organized by Fall Meeting of American Geophysical Union (AGU)


Uncovering Erosion Effects on the Twist Distribution in Cross-section of Magnetic Clouds

2020

Organised by European Space Weather Symposium (ESWS 2020)


Origin and Evolution of CME Flux Rope

2020

Organised by 5th Asia Pacific Solar Physics Meeting.


Dependence of Interplanetary Coronal Mass Ejection Magnetic Properties on Their Solar Sources

2018

Organised by Fall Meeting of American Geophysical Union (AGU)


On the Magnetic Connection between Solar Active Regions and Interplanetary Coronal Mass Ejections

2017

United Nations/United States of America Workshop on the International Space Weather Initiative (ISWI) hosted by Boston College main Chestnut Hill lower campus in Boston, USA.