Goddard Institute for Space Studies
June 7 – August 10, 2021
Goals of your project/s:
The goals for my project included analyzing simulations of Ancient Venus, Ancient Earth, and Ancient Mars. This was done by observing planetary conditions such as atmospheric composition, water content, and topography and how they effect the planet’s climates. Habitability metrics were calculated to quantify the habitability of these simulations. Then using these calculated values, the main goal of this project was to determine the factors that make a planet habitable.
Describe what you did during the internship:
This project included many concepts that I knew very little about. Over the course of the summer, I felt that I learned a great amount of new knowledge regarding exoplanets, habitability, and general circulation models.
To conduct research for this project the first few weeks involved learning about how to work with simulation files and what can be done to evaluate each simulation. An important aspect of this was being able to code using Python, so that was another thing I learned how to do. The files for the simulations were in the form of net CDF files, so these were used to extract values that were used in the habitability metrics. The observations and conclusions about Ancient Venus, Ancient Earth, and Ancient Mars were based off of these habitability metrics.
This work involved many very helpful group meetings with my mentor Dr. Way, as well as my two group members, Lana and Lindsay. I also attended various other talks and meetings to learn more about space science and NASA as a whole.
Did you achieve your goals? What were the results and conclusions?
I believe that I did achieve the goals I had in place, however I also think that there is still much more research to be done with this project. Despite this, in the 10 weeks of the internship I believe that the results were sufficient for the amount of time we had to do research. I look forward to hearing more about the results of further research in this field.
There were a few conclusions about the research I did this summer. To summarize these results, I found that cloud cover on Ancient Mars was the most efficient in cooling the planet, which observed with simulations involving oceans. In the cases of Ancient Earth and Ancient Mars, I found that greenhouse gases were the key factor in the higher values of habitability in these simulations. For the specific scenarios analyzed for Ancient Earth, the presence of oceans and ocean heat transport played a significant role in the warming of the polar regions. However, after looking at the simulations for Ancient Mars, it was discovered that the role of oceans was outweighed by carbon dioxide in a planet’s atmosphere.
By analyzing simulations for these three ancient worlds, we can gain a better understanding of life and the conditions that are defined as habitable. Further research in this field can aid in the search for a habitable exoplanet in the future.
Describe positive lessons learned from this experience:
This summer was full of excitement and great experiences. I believed that I learned so much about the ideas within my project as well as information regarding NASA, graduate school, future careers, and research projects in different fields.
In the process of conducting research, I met so many amazing people. I was very thankful to have such a great mentor and group members, and I felt that they made the internship more than just a learning experience.
I am so thankful to have been blessed to be able to experience this internship, and I feel that so many of the lessons I have learned will be beneficial to my future in science.
Describe negative lessons learned from this experience:
Due to this internship being virtual, I learned that technology is not always the most reliant. Over the course of the summer, I experienced a few technology issues with the NASA computer, internet, and also technology issues within virtual meetings. Learning how to work around these issues took some time, but overall improved my problem solving skills and my confidence in a virtual setting.