About

David Brain is a professor and Department Chair at the University of Colorado Boulder's Astrophysical & Planetary Sciences department. His research focuses on how atmospheres evolve, particularly in relation to transitions to and from habitable states. He utilizes spacecraft measurements and computer simulations to investigate atmospheric escape to space, the role of magnetic fields in surface habitability on solar system planets and exoplanets, and how the Sun and solar wind energize upper atmospheres. His work also includes studying plasma processes at Mars, Venus, and Earth.

Research topics

• Computer Science
• Computer Security
• Sociology
• Social Science
• Geology
• Physics
• Astrobiology
• Data science
• Aerospace engineering
• Earth science
• Engineering
• Geography
• Environmental science
• Astronomy
• Biology
• Meteorology
• Remote sensing
• Aeronautics

Selected publications

• The Emirates Mars Mission

  Space Science Reviews · 2022 · 63 citations

  • Computer Science
  • Aeronautics
  • Astrobiology

  The Emirates Mars Mission (EMM) was launched to Mars in the summer of 2020, and is the first interplanetary spacecraft mission undertaken by the United Arab Emirates (UAE). The mission has multiple programmatic and scientific objectives, including the return of scientifically useful information about Mars. Three science instruments on the mission's Hope Probe will make global remote sensing measurements of the Martian atmosphere from a large low-inclination orbit that will advance our understanding of atmospheric variability on daily and seasonal timescales, as well as vertical atmospheric transport and escape. The mission was conceived and developed rapidly starting in 2014, and had aggressive schedule and cost constraints that drove the design and implementation of a new spacecraft bus. A team of Emirati and American engineers worked across two continents to complete a fully functional and tested spacecraft and bring it to the launchpad in the middle of a global pandemic. EMM is being operated from the UAE and the United States (U.S.), and will make its data freely available.

  DOI

• Exogeoscience and Its Role in Characterizing Exoplanet Habitability and\n the Detectability of Life

  arXiv (Cornell University) · 2020 · 2 citations

  • Computer Science
  • Astrobiology
  • Sociology

  The search for exoplanetary life must encompass the complex geological\nprocesses reflected in an exoplanet's atmosphere, or we risk reporting false\npositive and false negative detections. To do this, we must nurture the nascent\ndiscipline of "exogeoscience" to fully integrate astronomers, astrophysicists,\ngeoscientists, oceanographers, atmospheric chemists and biologists. Increased\nfunding for interdisciplinary research programs, supporting existing and future\nmultidisciplinary research nodes, and developing research incubators is key to\ntransforming true exogeoscience from an aspiration to a reality.\n

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

Frequent coauthors

• B. M. Jakosky

  Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics

  473 shared

• J. S. Halekas

  447 shared

• D. L. Mitchell

  University of California, Berkeley

  312 shared

• J. R. Espley

  Goddard Space Flight Center

  279 shared

• J. G. Luhmann

  University of California, Berkeley

  264 shared

• Y. Dong

  University of Colorado Boulder

  236 shared

• R. J. Lillis

  232 shared

• C. Mazelle

  205 shared

Education

• Ph.D. and M.S., Astrophysics Planetary and Atmospheric Sciences

  University of Colorado Boulder

  2002

• B.A., Physics (Space Physics Concentration) and Mathematics

  Rice University

  1995

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• Kristi S. Ansethh-159
• Thomas R. Cechh-156