Matthew Burger, Associate Research Scientist

GEST Research Group:

Heliophysics and Solar System Divisions

GSFC Code:

673.0

Mailing Address:

Heliophysics Division
Building 21, Room 253B
NASA GSFC, Code 673.0
Greenbelt, MD 20771 USA

Phone:

(301) 286-0344

Fax:

(301) 286-1433

Email:

matthew.h.burger@nasa.gov

URL:

http://caps.gsfc.nasa.gov/mburger/

Most Recent Publication:

Burger, M.H. et al. (2007), Understanding the escape of water from Enceladus, J. Geophys. Res., 112, A06219.

Research Interests:

Tenuous atmospheres of the solar system and the interactions between satellite atmospheres and planetary magnetospheres. My primary research topics are: * the atmospheres and exospheres of the Galilean satellites * the Io neutral cloud and plasma torus * the Enceladus water plume and the neutral torus formed at Saturn * measurements of Saturn's magnetospheric plasma with the Cassini Plasma Spectrometer (CAPS) and the interactions between plasma and neutrals in Saturn's magnetosphere * Mercury's exosphere and its interaction with Mercury's surface and the solar wind

Biography:

Dr. Matthew Burger received a B.A. in Physics from Rice University in 1996, and a M.S. and Ph.D. in Astrophysical and Planetary Sciences from the University of Colorado, Boulder, in 1998 and 2003, respectively. His Ph.D. thesis entitled "Io's Neutral Clouds: From the Atmosphere to the Plasma Torus," presented observations and numerical modeling of sodium and oxygen neutrals in Io's exosphere and extensive neutral clouds. From 2003 to 2005, he worked as a Postdoctoral Research Associate at the University of Virginia, Charlottesville, modeling the neutral clouds associated with the Jovian and Saturnian satellites. He began work as a NRC Research Fellow in 2005 and continued as a NASA Postdoctoral Fellow from 2006-2008. At GSFC, Dr. Burger worked with the Cassini Plasma Spectrometer team modeling interactions between Enceladus and the Saturnian magnetosphere. Since 2008, Dr. Burger has divided his time between GEST, working with CAPS data, and the University of Maryland, College Park, modeling Mercury's exosphere in support of the MESSENGER mission.