Hi! I'm Sarah! I am an Assistant Research Scientist at UMBC and NASA Goddard Space Flight Center located in Greenbelt, Maryland. I am interested in the habitability of terrestrial exoplanets as well as other star-planet interactions, primarily relating to the high energy radiation environment to which these planets are exposed. My research is focused on the upper atmospheres and ultraviolet emission from stars. I use the PHOENIX atmosphere code to compute synthetic stellar spectra for exoplanet host stars that span extreme ultraviolet to infrared wavelengths. 

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I am involved in three NASA mission/mission concepts:

Star-Planet Activity Research CubeSat (SPARCS) - This NASA-funded astrophysics mission will photometrically monitor the high-energy radiation environment of exoplanets around low-mass stars and is set to launch in late 2023.

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Small NASA Optical Ultraviolet Telescope (SNOUT) - This NASA Pioneers mission concept will measure both quiescent EUV flux and simultaneous EUV+white-light flares from low mass stars to characterize the high energy environment exoplanets are subject to.

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Ultraviolet Spectroscopic Characterization of Planets and their Environments (UV-SCOPE) - This NASA MidEX mission concept will observe UV transmission spectra of transiting exoplanets orbiting young and old stars ranging in spectral type, plus the spectra of stars with which to map the variability, flaring, and evolution of exoplanet high-energy environments.

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You can learn more about these projects in the Research tab.