Jody Wilson's Research

I'm a senior research associate working with the Imaging Science Team in The Center for Space Physics at Boston University. My research involves imaging and numerical modeling of extended ``transient atmospheres" of solar system bodies, including the Moon, the planet Mercury, Jupiter's satellite Io, and comets. I am also involved with a new High-Definition-Imaging project which uses high-speed video to obtain very sharp images of solar system objects.

My group conducts regular observations at McDonald Observatory, and we have also observed from Mount Wilson Observatory, Table Mountain Observatory, Mount Haleakala (Hawaii), and Australia. Observational results to which I have contributed include the first images of cometary sodium tails (Hyakutake and Hale-Bopp), the discovery of the Moon's sodium tail, the first known correlation between Io's sodium clouds and Io's volcanic activity, and one of the best-to-date groundbased images of Mercury.

Numerical modeling results include the demonstrations of molecular pickup ion production at Io, the escape of Io's ionosphere, and the brightening of the lunar sodium tail due to the Leonid meteor shower.

My resume

Internet overview of my research (GOOGLE listing)

Io Models of Io's sodium clouds Io's sodium directional features B.U. observations of Jupiter's sodium nebula Galileo's close-up view of the Io sodium jet (1999, GRL) Io research around the world: International Jupiter Watch - Satellites International Jupiter Watch - Io Plasma Torus Io Plasma Torus Research at CU	Comets Three tails of Comet Hale Bopp (1998, GRL) More B.U. comet research Comet research around the world: Comet Observation Home Page POLAR observations of Hale-Bopp
The Moon The Moon's sodium tail More B.U. lunar research Lunar atmosphere research around the country: LPL Planetary Atmospheres page	Mercury High resolution images of Mercury's surface Mercury research around the world: Mercury Watch homepage Uppsala Planetary System Group