A bright future: Shipra Sinha, Ph.D., discusses her work and fellowship in the NASA Postdoctoral Program
Shipra Sinha, Ph.D., is a a NASA Postdoctoral Program Fellow living in India and conducting research with the Goddard Space Flight Center. Shipra's research focuses on auroras, which occur at both the North and South Poles. Studying auroras is fascinating, as most people in the West know about the Aurora Borealis. Shipra says the biggest challenge with studying South Pole auroras is Antarctica. Getting there is a challenge, so she often has to make estimates about southern aurora behavior based on what is known about their northern counterparts. Throughout this conversation, Shipra talks to host Michael Holtz about how she became an NPP Fellow (this conversation took place before her official start date in January), the importance of surrounding herself with supportive people, the value of mentorship and collaboration, and more.
Center: Goddard Space Flight Center
NASA Postdoctoral Program (NPP) Fellow Shipra Sinha, Ph.D., believes that it was a matter of being in the right place at the right time that helped her bridge the gap between a NASA internship and the NPP.
Sinha, whose research focuses on auroras—more commonly known as northern and southern lights—completed a three-month internship with NASA in March 2023.
“It gave me a lot of opportunities to talk to people,” Sinha explained in a recent interview on Further Together: The ORAU Podcast, “to understand what they’re working on, to find common interests. And that’s when I met Dr. Mei-Ching Fok, who is my MVP supervisor.”
Sinha was born and raised in India and returned to the United States when her NPP began in January.
“I am excited to rejoin NASA. My work is about substorms and auroras,” said Sinha. “I mostly use the data sets of the satellites and ground-based instruments to perform event-based analysis. When I met Dr. Mei-Ching Fok there were some drawbacks in data analysis and satellite data analysis. Because we don't have the satellite information at all times in all locations. So, for that period of time, simulation is something that really helps. We kind of collaborated to bring together data analysis and simulation so that we can have a complete picture of any event that we are starting right. That was the joint proposal that I wrote this year in March, and it got selected.”
Sinha explained that her research uses satellites to study aurora borealis, which are northern polar lights, and aurora australis, which are southern polar lights. These phenomena occur simultaneously, so it is possible to study aurora australis by observing aurora borealis. This is convenient since the South Pole is much more difficult to reach than the North Pole.
“We study aurora borealis in a more detailed way because we have the liberty to install instruments and take measurements, which is a bit difficult in Antarctica,” Sinha said. “I won’t say it’s extremely symmetric, but it’s a phenomenon that occurs in both the poles. We have polar orbiting satellites, and we have instruments installed in those satellites which can also take pictures of all the poles so that way we can have data sets. But then again, there’s a drawback of time and position in satellite measurements.”
Physics has always been an area of study that interested Sinha, and while she didn’t always know which branch of science she would choose as a career, she knew that she was fascinated by the way physics helped her understand the universe.
“What I do is look forward to things that interest me so that I can give my 100%,” Sinha explained, “rather than doing it just for the sake of doing it. Luckily, I found an opportunity to work on aurora and I grabbed that, and so here I am. Since I’m a student from a space physics background, it has always been an aspiration, a dream to be a part of NASA, and I’m very glad and I’m very fortunate to have been at the right place at the right time, which helped me to be a part of this amazing organization.