KIF Profile: Carol Anne Oxborrow

⭐ Carol Anne Oxborrow is Chief Scientific Consultant at DTU Space at the Technical University of Denmark where she recently celebrated her 25th work anniversary! She graduated from Imperial College, University of London (BSc, ARCS) and University of Delaware, USA (MSc, PhD)

⭐ Carol Anne sat on the KIF Board from 2012 to 2017

Brief description of your work:

Our research group works on atmospheric discharges, which include ordinary lightning, but it mainly focuses on the types of electrical discharges that occur above the clouds and up to the ionosphere (Transient Luminous Events, TLEs). These kinds of events include Terrestrial Gamma Flashes (TGFs) for which the group, and my predecessor, Torsten Neubert, led the ASIM project to put x-ray and gamma-ray detecting instruments on the ISS to monitor very high energy discharges in the upper atmosphere. ASIM was launched in 2018 and I have been head of the ASIM Science Data Centre since 2015. The mission has been hugely successful and observed more than 1400 TGFs – allowing us not only to discover the mechanism driving these surprisingly energetic events, but also to draw a statistical picture of the kinds of tropical storms that produce these discharges. A good understanding of these events is necessary to model the chemical and radiation balance of the atmosphere and to help predict how this behaviour might change in a warming atmosphere. We also study other forms of TLEs and are preparing an experiment for Andreas Mogensen, and another suite of instruments for the ISS, to better understand the climate implications of atmospheric discharges.

What is the best career advice you ever got?

I never got any positive careers advice. If I had to give some advice it would be: do the best you can here and now – you never know where it will lead in the future.

In celebration of KIF’s 30 Anniversary in 2022, we present a lineup of short profiles of some of the former board members who have helped build and shape KIF over the years. These women are excellent role models who show some of the many careers that are possible with a physics background.