Dr. Robert Pfaff

For my Physics Blog I wanted to write about a physicist I know in real life — my friend’s dad, Dr. Robert Pfaff, who is a Space Scientist for NASA. Though I mostly just know him as “James’s Dad,” it was exciting to dive into Dr. Pfaff’s work and see the cool projects he’s worked on throughout his career. 

Dr. Pfaff attended Brown University for his undergraduate degree, received a masters at the University of Paris, and a Ph.D from Cornell University in 1985, after which he immediately began working at NASA. His official title is “Space Scientist” and is the Principal Investigator of the Vector Electric Field Investigation (VEFI) on the Air Force C/NOFS satellite. Since coming to NASA, Dr. Pfaff has provided electric field, magnetic field, and plasma density measurements for 47 rocket missions for NASA. He has also published over 150 papers and been cited over 3000 times — clearly an accomplished physicist! 

I have attempted to read the abstracts of a few of his recent publications, however they are very complex.  Most of his research is focused on atmospheric plasma in the ionosphere. Recent research has been focused on differing conditions of ion drag at different times in the day (dawn vs dusk), due to the Coriolis force, the curvature, and the pressure gradient. One of his most cited papers, published in 1998, discusses the Fast Auroral SnapshoT (FAST) Mission. This paper discusses the mechanics of the mission, and the information about atmospheric plasma they learned from it, specifically that “measurements from FAST show that upward and downward current regions in the auroral zone have complementary field and particle features defined by upward and downward directed parallel electric field structures and corresponding electron and ion beams” (Carlson et al., 1998). 

Carlson, C. W., Pfaff, R. F., & Watzin, J. G. (1998). The fast auroral snapshot (FAST) mission. Geophysical research letters, 25(12), 2013-2016.

Larsen, M. F., Pfaff, R. F., Mesquita, R., & Kaeppler, S. R. (2022). Gradient Winds and Neutral Flow Dawn‐Dusk Asymmetry in the Auroral Oval During Geomagnetically Disturbed Conditions. Journal of Geophysical Research: Space Physics, 127(1), e2021JA029936.

NASA (n.d) Sciences and Exploration Directorate: Robert F Pfaff. Accessed December 2, 2022 from https://science.gsfc.nasa.gov/sed/bio/robert.f.pfaff