Donald H Fairfield
Geospace Physics Branch
Laboratory for Solar and Space Physics
EDUCATION:
1960 - B.A. Beloit College
1962 - M.S. Pennsylvania State University (Physics)
1965 - Ph.D. Pennsylvania State University (Physics)
EXPERIENCE:
Dr Fairfield has spent his entire career at NASA/GSFC, arriving in 1965 as a NAS/NRC postdoctoral fellow and continuing as a civil servant after 1967. He has been a co-investigator on 9 magnetic field and plasma experiments and has conducted pioneering research in many areas of magnetospheric physics. He provided the first demonstration that a southward Interplanetary Magnetic Field controls geomagnetic activity, the first evidence that waves upstream of the bow shock are associated with the shock. (i.e. there is a foreshock), and the first conclusive identification of whistler waves upstream from the bow shock. He has written numerous papers on the magnetosphere magnetic field configuration and he co-developed the first quantitative model of the distant geomagnetic field based on spacecraft observations. He provided early indications of the role of the magnetotail in magnetospheric substorms and more recently demonstrated the association high velocity magnetotail flows with substorms and auroral onsets. Dr Fairfield’s current primary interests are the magnetosphere boundary layer and the magnetotail. He is currently NASA's Project Scientist for Geotail. Dr. Fairfield is a member of the American Geophysical Union, has served as a Associate Editor for the Journal of Geophysical Research and has received Editor's Citations for Excellence in Refereeing from both the Journal of Geophysical Research (Space Physics) and Geophysical Research Letters. He was elected a Fellow of the AGU in 2003.
SELECTED RECENT PUBLICATIONS (from a total of 112)
1. Fairfield, D. H., et al., Geotail observations of substorm onset in the inner magnetotail, J. Geophys. Res. 103, 103, 1998.
2. Fairfield, D. H., T. Mukai, T. Yamamoto, M. Brittnacher, G. K. Parks, G. D. Reeves, S. Kokubun, D. A. Gurnett, K. Hashimoto and H. Matsumoto, Earthward Flow Bursts in the Inner Magnetotail and their Relation to Auroral Brightenings, AKR intensifications, Geosynchronous Particle Injections and Magnetic Activity, J. Geophys. Res., 104, 355, 1999.
3. Fairfield, D. H., A. Otto, T. Mukai, S. Kokubun, R. P. Lepping, J. T. Steinberg, A. J. Lazarus, and T. Yamamoto, Geotail observations of the Kelvin Helmholz instability at the equatorial magnetotail boundary for parallel northward fields, J. Geophys. Res., 105, 21,159, 2000.
4. Fairfield, D. H., M. D. Desch, A. Szabo, I. H. Cairns, A. J. Lazarus, M. R. Aellig, The Location of low Mach number bow shocks at Earth, J. Geophys. Res., 25,361, 2001.
5. Fairfield , D. H., C. J. Farrugia, T. Mukai, T. Nagai, and A. Federov, Motion of the dusk flank boundary layer caused by solar wind pressure changes and the Kelvin-Helmholtz instability: 10–11 January 1997, J. Geophys. Res., 108(A12), 1460, doi:10.1029/2003JA010134, 2003.