+ Earth Observing System > Who's Who > EOS Project Scientists > Claire L. Parkinson

EOS Project Scientists

Dr. Claire L. Parkinson

Code 614.1
Goddard Space Flight Center
National Aeronautics and Space Administration
Greenbelt, MD 20771
USA

Phone: (301) 614-5715
Fax: (301) 614-5644
Email: claire.l.parkinson@nasa.gov

Claire Parkinson has been Project Scientist for the Aqua mission (formerly PM-1) since the spring of 1993. She's a climatologist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, where she's worked since July 1978, with a research emphasis on sea ice and its role in the global climate system. Her work has centered on satellite data analysis but has also involved numerical modeling and field work in both the Arctic and the Antarctic. Claire is lead author of an atlas of Arctic sea ice from satellite data and coauthor of two other sea ice atlases, as well as being an author or coauthor of approximately 100 refereed articles. Beyond her sea ice and Aqua work, she has coauthored with Warren Washington a textbook on climate modeling and has coedited a book on satellite observations related to global change. She has also written an introductory text on satellite imagery and a book on the history of western science from 1202 to 1930. In an effort to stay fit, she jogs and swims, and in 2001 she won a bronze medal in the 200-yard backstroke in the U.S. Nationals of the Senior Olympics and broke the Maryland age-group record in the same event. She often speaks to groups of students and/or teachers and is a JASON Host Researcher for the JASON XIII Frozen Worlds curriculum and a science advisor to the Earth & Sky Radio Program and to Soundprint Media Center. Claire has a B.A. in mathematics from Wellesley College and a Ph.D. in climatology from Ohio State University. She is a fellow of both the American Meteorological Society and Phi Beta Kappa.