DAVID M. SMITH

Associate Professor of Physics Ph.D. University of California, Berkeley, 1993 Office: Room 321, Natural Sciences II Phone: (831) 459-2183 Fax: (831) 459-5777 Email: dsmith (at) scipp.ucsc.edu

High-energy processes in astrophysical sources (particularly x-ray binaries), terrestrial lightning, Earth's radiation belts, and solar flares via observations of x-ray and gamma-ray emission. Design and construction of instruments to fly on spacecraft, aircraft and stratospheric balloons and observations with existing NASA satellites.

Airborne Detector for Energetic Lightning Emissions (ADELE): instrument for airplane observations of gamma-rays from lightning. First flight Summer 2009.

Balloon Array for RBSP Relativistic Electron Losses (BARREL): contributing ground station and magnetometers for multi-balloon mission to study the dynamics of the radiation belts. Flights from 2009-2014.

Instrument Scientist for RHESSI: operations and calibration of germanium detectors for the Reuven Ramaty High Energy Solar Spectroscopic Imager (RHESSI) spacecraft, launched February, 2002.

Analysis of data from high-energy satellite missions: RHESSI, RXTE, Chandra, XMM/Newton, Suzaku, and (in the future) GLAST and Mercury MESSENGER.

SELECTED RECENT PUBLICATIONS

Astrophysics
"A Transition to the Soft State in GRS 1758-258" , D. M. Smith, W. A. Heindl, C. B. Markwardt, and J. H. Swank, Ap. J. 544, L41 (2001)

"Two Different Long-term Behaviors in Black-Hole Candidates: Evidence for Two Accretion Flows?" , D. M. Smith, W. A. Heindl, and J. H. Swank, Ap. J. 569, 362 (2002)

"Orbital and Super-Orbital Periods of 1E 1740.7-2942 and GRS 1758-258" , D. M. Smith, W. A. Heindl, and J. H. Swank, Ap. J. Letters 578, 129 (2002)

"The Reuven Ramaty High Energy Solar Spectroscopic Imager Observation of the 1809 keV Line from Galactic 26Al" , D. M. Smith, Ap. J. Letters 589, 55 (2003)

"RHESSI results on gamma-ray lines from diffuse radioactivity" , D. M. Smith, New Ast. Rev., 48, 87 (2004)

"An exceptionally bright flare from SGR 1806-20 and the origins of short-duration gamma-ray bursts" , K. Hurley, S. E. Boggs, D. M. Smith et al., Nature 434, 1098 (2005)

"XTE J1739-302 as a Supergiant Fast X-Ray Transient" , D. M. Smith et al., ApJ 638, 974 (2006)

"Hysteresis of Spectral Evolution in the Soft State of Black Hole Binary LMC X-3" , D. M. Smith, D. M. Dawson, and J. H. Swank, Ap. J. 669, 1138 (2007)

High-Energy Processes in Lightning
"Terrestrial Gamma-Ray Flashes Observed up to 20 MeV" , D. M. Smith et al., Science 307, 1085 (2005)

"A comparison between Monte Carlo simulations of runaway breakdown and terrestrial gamma-ray flash observations" , J. R. Dwyer and D. M. Smith, Geophys. Res. Lett. 32, L22804 (2005)

"High-energy electron beams launched into space by thunderstorms" , J. R. Dwyer, B. W. Grefenstette, and D. M. Smith, Geophys. Res. Lett. 35, L06802 (2008)

"Time evolution of terrestrial gamma ray flashes" , B. W. Grefenstette, D. M. Smith, J. R. Dwyer, and G. J. Fishman, Geophys. Res. Lett. 35, L02815 (2008)

Solar Physics
"The RHESSI Spectrometer" , D. M. Smith et al.; Solar Physics, 210, 33 (2002)

"High-Resolution Spectroscopy of Gamma-Ray Lines from the X-Class Solar Flare of 2002 July 23" , D. M. Smith et al., Ap. J. Letters 595, L81 (2003)

Terrestrial Radiation-Belt Physics
"High-Resolution Spectra of 20-300 keV Hard X-rays from Electron Precipitation over Antarctica" , D. M. Smith, R. P. Lin, K. A. Anderson, K. Hurley, and C. M. Johns, Journal of Geophysical Research, 100, 19,675 (1995)


"First Detection of a Terrestrial MeV X-ray Burst" , J. E. Foat, R. P. Lin, D. M. Smith, F. Fenrich, R. Millan, I. Roth, K. R. Lorentzen, M. P. McCarthy, G. K. Parks, and J. P. Treilhou, Geophys. Res. Lett., 25, 4109 (1998)


"X-ray Observations of MeV Electron Precipitation with a Balloon-Borne Germanium Spectrometer" , R. M. Millan, R. P. Lin, D. M. Smith, K. R. Lorentzen, & M. P. McCarthy, Geophys. Res. Lett., 29, 47 (2002)

"Observation of relativistic electron precipitation during a rapid decrease of trapped relativistic electron flux" , R. M. Millan, R. P. Lin, D. M. Smith, and M. P. McCarthy, Geophys. Res. Lett. 34, L10101 (2007)