Mei-Ching
Mei-Ching Fok		 JeremyBday2006
Jeremy's Birthday, July 2006

Dr. Mei-Ching Fok
Astrophysicist, Laboratory for Geospace Physics
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Code 673, Greenbelt, MD 20771

Dr. Mei-Ching Fok received the B. S. degree in Physics from the Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) in 1980. She spent the year after in the Physics Department at CUHK as a teaching assistant. From 1981-1985, she taught Physics and Mathematics in a high school in Hong Kong. In the summer of 1985, she came to the United States with her husband to pursue graduate studies. In 1987, Dr. Fok received the M. S. degree in Physics from the Eastern Michigan University. In the following year, she was admitted to the Ph. D. program in the Department of Atmospheric, Oceanic & Space Sciences at the University of Michigan and received her Ph. D. degree in August 1993. Three months later, she was awarded an NAS/NRC Resident Research Associateship at NASA/Marshall Space Flight Center. In 1995, she joined the Universities Space Research Association (USRA) at MSFC after she left the NRC program. In August 1997, Dr. Fok was transferred within USRA to the Goddard Space Flight Center to follow her NASA sponsor, Dr. Thomas E. Moore. She became a NASA employee in May 2001.

During her doctoral study, she performed statistical studies on the subauroral electron temperature enhancement, using measurements from AE-C and DE 2 satellites. Dr. Fok also developed a kinetic model to study the dynamics of the storm time ring current ions and the associated effects on the plasmasphere-ionosphere system. Her model is the first ring current model that incorporates a time-dependent plasmasphere model and thus resolves the instantaneous coupling between the energetic and thermal plasmas. At the Marshall Space Flight Center, Dr. Fok extended her ring current model into 3 dimensions and included realistic magnetic field configurations. Her model has been used to simulate the energetic neutral atom (ENA) emissions in the inner magnetosphere in support the IMAGE mission. She continues her work at GSFC on global modeling through wide collaborations with the modeling group at the Rice University, the MHD group at the University of Washington, and scientists at CETP, France.

Selected Publications:

  1. Fok, M.-C., J. U. Kozyra, A. F. Nagy, and T. E. Cravens, Lifetime of ring current particles due to Coulomb collisions in the plasmasphere, J. Geophys. Res., 96, 7861, 1991.
  2. Fok, M.-C., J. U. Kozyra, A. F. Nagy, C. E. Rasmussen, and G. V. Khazanov, Decay of equatorial ring current ions and associated aeronomical consequences, J. Geophys. Res., 98, 19,381, 1993.
  3. Fok, M.-C., T. E. Moore, J. U. Kozyra, G. C. Ho, and D. C. Hamilton, Three-dimensional ring current decay model, J. Geophys. Res., 100, 9619, 1995.
  4. Fok, M.-C., P. D. Craven, T. E. Moore, and P. G. Richards, Ring current - plasmasphere coupling through Coulomb collisions, in Cross-Scale Coupling in Space Plasmas, Geophys. Monogr. Ser., vol. 93, edited by J. L. Horwitz, N. Singh, and J. L. Burch, pp. 161, AGU, Washington, D. C., 1995.
  5. Fok, M.-C., T. E. Moore, and M. E. Greenspan, Ring current development during storm main phase, J. Geophys. Res., 101, 15,311, 1996.
  6. Fok, M.-C., and T. E. Moore, Ring current modeling in a realistic magnetic field configuration, Geophys. Res. Lett., 24, 1775-1778, 1997.
  7. Fok, M.-C., and T. E. Moore, Drift-shell splitting in an asymmetric magnetic field, in Geospace Mass and Energy Flow: Results From the ISTP Program, Geophys. Monogr. Ser., vol. 104, edited by J. L. Horwitz et al., pp. 327-331, AGU, Washington, D. C., 1998.
  8. Fok, M.-C., T. E. Moore, and D. C. Delcourt, Modeling of inner plasma sheet and ring current during substorms, J. Geophys. Res., 14557-14569, 1999.
  9. Fok, M.-C., T. E. Moore, and W. N. Spjeldvik, Rapid enhancement of radiation belt electron fluxes due to substorm dipolarization of the geomagnetic field, J. Geophys. Res., 106, 3873-3881, 2001.
  10. Fok, M.-C., R. A. Wolf, R. W. Spiro, and T. E. Moore, Comprehensive computational model of the Earth's ring current, J. Geophys. Res., 106, 8417-8424, 2001.
  11. Fok, M.-C., T. E. Moore, G. R. Wilson, J. D. Perez, X. X. Zhang, P. C:son Brandt, D. G. Mitchell, E. C. Roelof, J.-M. Jahn, C. J. Pollock, and R. A. Wolf, Global ENA IMAGE simulations, Space Sci. Rev., 109, 77-103, 2003.
  12. Zheng, Y., M.-C. Fok, and G. V. Khazanov, A radiation belt - ring current forecasting model, Space Weather, 1(3), 1013, 2003.
  13. Fok, M.-C., T. E. Moore, M. R. Collier, and T. Tanaka, Neutral atom imaging of solar wind interaction with the Earth and Venus, J. Geophys. Res., 109, A01206, doi:10.1029/2003JA010094, 2004.
  14. Ebihara, Y., and M.-C. Fok, Post-midnight storm-time enhancement of ten-of-keV proton flux, J. Geophys. Res., 109, A12209, doi:10.1029/2004JA010523, 2004.
  15. Keller, K. A., M.-C. Fok, A. Narock, M. Hesse, L. Rastaetter, M. M. Kuznetsova, T. I. Gombosi, D. L. DeZeeuw, Effect of multiple substorms on the buildup of the ring current, J. Geophys. Res., 110, A08202, doi:10.1029/2004JA010747, 2005.
  16. Ebihara, Y., M.-C. Fok, S. Sazykin, M. F. Thomsen, M. R. Hairston, D. S. Evans, F. J. Rich, and M. Ejiri, Ring current and the magnetosphere-ionosphere coupling during the superstorm of 20 November 2003, J. Geophys. Res., 110, A09S22, doi:10.1029/2004JA010924, 2005.
  17. Fok, M.-C., Y. Ebihara, and T. E. Moore, Inner magnetospheric plasma interactions and coupling with the ionosphere, Adv. Polar Upper Atmos. Res., 19, 106-134, 2005.
  18. Fok, M.-C., Y. Ebihara, T. E. Moore, D. M. Ober, and K. A. Keller, Geospace Storm Processes Coupling the Ring Current, Radiation Belt and Plasmasphere, in Inner Magnetosphere Interactions: New Perspectives from Imaging, Geophys. Monogr. Ser., vol. 159, edited by J. Burch et al., pp. 207-220, AGU, Washington, D. C., 2005.
  19. Fok, M.-C., T. E. Moore, P. C. Brandt, D. C. Delcourt, S. P. Slinker, and J. A. Fedder, Impulsive enhancements of oxygen ions during substorms, J. Geophys. Res., 111, A10222, doi:10.1029/2006JA011839, 2006.
  20. Fok, M.-C., R. B. Horne, N. P. Nigel, and S. A. Glauert, Radiation Belt Environment Model: Application to Space Weather Nowcasting, J. Geophys. Res., 113, A03S08, doi:10.1029/2007JA012558, 2008.