Geophysics is a subject of natural science concerned with the physical processes and physical properties of the Earth and its surrounding space environment, and the use of quantitative methods for their analysis. Geophysicists, who usually study geophysics, physics, or one of the Earth sciences at the graduate level, complete investigations across a wide range of scientific disciplines. The term geophysics classically refers to solid earth applications: Earth's shape; its gravitational, magnetic fields, and electromagnetic fields ; its internal structure and composition; its dynamics and their surface expression in plate tectonics, the generation of magmas, volcanism and rock formation. However, modern geophysics organizations and pure scientists use a broader definition that includes the water cycle including snow and ice; fluid dynamics of the oceans and the atmosphere; electricity and magnetism in the ionosphere and magnetosphere and solar-terrestrial physics; and analogous problems associated with the Moon and other planets.
The Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) was a joint mission of NASA and the German Aerospace Center (DLR). Twin satellites took detailed measurements of Earth's gravity field anomalies from its launch in March 2002 to the end of its science mission in October 2017. The two satellites were sometimes called Tom and Jerry, a nod to the famous cartoon. The GRACE Follow-On (GRACE-FO) is a continuation of the mission on near-identical hardware, launched in May 2018. On March 19, 2024, NASA announced that the successor to GRACE-FO would be Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment-Continuity (GRACE-C), to be launched in or after 2028.
The International Union of Geodesy and Geophysics is an international non-governmental organization dedicated to the scientific study of Earth and its space environment using geophysical and geodetic techniques. The IUGG is a member of the International Science Council (ISC), which is composed of international scholarly and scientific institutions and national academies of sciences.
GNSS reflectometry involves making measurements from the reflections from the Earth of navigation signals from Global Navigation Satellite Systems such as GPS. The idea of using reflected GNSS signals for earth observation was first proposed in 1993 by Martin-Neira. It was also investigated by researchers at NASA Langley Research Center and is also known as GPS reflectometry.
William Richard Peltier, Ph.D., D.Sc. (hc), is university professor of physics at the University of Toronto. He is director of the Centre for Global Change Science, past principal investigator of the Polar Climate Stability Network, and the scientific director of Canada's largest supercomputer centre, SciNet. He is a fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, of the American Geophysical Union, of the American Meteorological Society, and of the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters..
UNAVCO was a non-profit university-governed consortium that facilitated geology research and education using geodesy.
Peter Arthur Fox was a data science and Semantic eScience researcher at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI), United States. He was a Tetherless World Constellation chair and professor of Earth and Environmental Science, Computer Science and Cognitive Science, and director of the Information Technology and Web Science Program at RPI. He was known for defining informatics and data science in earth sciences, bringing Semantic Web research to that community, as well as defining the sun-earth connection research agenda and co-convening the community. Fox was born in Devonport, Tasmania, Australia and resided in Troy, NY, United States until his death on 27 March 2021, at the age of 61.
Diane McKnight is a distinguished professor of civil, environmental, and architectural engineering at the University of Colorado Boulder and a fellow at the Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research (INSTAAR). McKnight is a founding principal investigator of the National Science Foundation's Long-Term Ecological Research (LTER) program in the McMurdo Dry Valleys of Antarctica.
Joan S. Gomberg is a research geophysicist at the United States Geological Survey. She serves as an adjunct professor at the University of Washington. She is interested in subduction zone science, and studies how earthquakes trigger each other and how faults can slip. Gomberg is a Fellow of the American Geophysical Union. She was the first person to demonstrate how dynamic stress associated with seismic waves can trigger other earthquakes.
Véronique Dehant is a Belgian geodesist and geophysicist. She specializes in modeling the deformation of the Earth's interior in response to the planet's rotation and the gravitational forces exerted upon it by the Sun and Moon. She has used similar techniques to study Mercury, Venus, Mars and the icy satellites of the outer planets. She primarily works at the Royal Observatory of Belgium, but also serves as an Extraordinary Professor at the Université Catholique de Louvain.
Éric Calais is a French geologist-geophysicist, born in 1964, internationally recognized practitioner of high-precision space geodesy and a pioneer in its applications to measure seismic deformations at the boundaries of tectonic plates and in their interiors. He has been a member of the French Academy of Sciences since 2017.
The Ann and H.J. Smead Department of Aerospace Engineering Sciences is a department within the College of Engineering & Applied Science at the University of Colorado Boulder, providing aerospace education and research. Housed primarily in the Aerospace Engineering Sciences building on the university's East Campus in Boulder, it awards baccalaureate, masters, and PhD degrees, as well as certificates, graduating approximately 225 students annually. The Ann and H.J. Smead Department of Aerospace Engineering Sciences is ranked 10th in the nation in both undergraduate and graduate aerospace engineering education among public universities by US News & World Report.
The Christiaan Huygens Medal, named after the mathematician and natural philosopher Christiaan Huygens, is a prize awarded by the European Geosciences Union to promote excellence in geosciences and space science.
Anne Sheehan is a geologist known for her research using seismometer data to examine changes in the Earth's crust and mantle.
Seth Avram Stein is an American geophysicist with an international reputation for his research in plate tectonics, seismology, and space geodesy. He has also done important work in public policy for coping with earthquake hazards.
Thomas A. Herring is a geophysicist, known for developing and applying systems of space geodesy to high-precision geophysical measurements and geodynamic research.
Tonie Marie van Dam is an American geophysicist and geodesist, known for her pioneering research on solid Earth deformations due to loads from atmospheric and hydrologic pressures. She and her collaborators used space geodetic observations and modeling for increased precision in measuring and understanding such loads.
John Matthew Wahr was an American geophysicist and geodesist, known for his research on Earth's rotation, Earth tides, ocean tides, post-glacial rebound, and other topics in the geosciences.
Susanna Zerbini is an Italian geophysicist, geodesist, and geodynamicist. She is known as a pioneer in developing and applying satellite geodesy for research in geodynamics and Earth system sciences.
The Polar Earth Observing Network (POLENET) is a global network involving researchers from 24 nations for the geophysical observation of the polar regions of our planet.
