LW
Member Since 2014
Lara Waldrop
Associate Professor, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
My research is focused on the development of new techniques for estimating key physical state parameters of the space plasma environment surrounding Earth. My work mainly involves the remote sensing and photochemical and radiative transfer modeling of optical emissions from the uppermost atmosphere by various ground- and space-based spectroscopic, photometric, and interferometric sensors. I am the PI of NASA’s Carruthers Geocorona Observatory, which is expected to launch in 2025.
Professional Experience
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Associate Professor
1998 - Present
Education
Boston University
Doctorate
2004
Honors & Awards
William B Hanson Lecture
Received December 2024
Publications
New Sensing Strategies for Estimation of Global, Exospheric Density

Reliable quantification of the global and time‐dependent structure of the Earth's outermost atmosphere, a vast region known as the exosphere,...

August 26, 2020
AGU Abstracts
Climatological variability of the vertical limiting flux of atomic hydrogen in Earth's atmosphere as observed by NASA's TIMED/SABER
COMPOSITION, WIND, AND TEMPERATURE VARIABILITY IN THE MESOSPHERE AND IONOSPHERE/THERMOSPHERE I ORAL
spa-aeronomy | 13 december 2024
Pratik Joshi, Lara Waldrop, Gary R. Swenson
The vertical limiting flux of hydrogen (H) atoms available to escape from the Earths atmosphere is governed by the rate of upward diffusion of hydroge...
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NASA's Carruthers Geocorona Observatory:A new era of exospheric remote sensing
2024 WILLIAM B. HANSON LECTURE
spa-aeronomy | 12 december 2024
Lara Waldrop
Reliable characterization of the spatial structure and temporal variability of Earth's exosphere is notoriously difficult, owing mainly to the technic...
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Retrieval of thermal atomic hydrogen density from Lyman-alpha emission measured by NASA's TIMED/GUVI and by NASA’s Carruthers Geocorona Observatory
ADVANCES IN GEOSPACE SCIENCE FROM REMOTE SENSING II POSTER
spa-aeronomy | 11 december 2024
Pratik Joshi, Lara Waldrop, Thomas J. Immel, Heath...
Atomic hydrogen (H) plays an important role in Earths atmospheric evolution and its response to geomagnetic storms. Quantification of the global and t...
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Volunteer Experience
2017 - 2018
Member
Space Physics and Aeronomy Fred L. Scarf Award Committee
Check out all of Lara Waldrop’s AGU Research!
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