William Lotko | Sue and John Ballard '55…

Overview

Bill Lotko is the Sue and John Ballard '55 TT'56 Professor Emeritus of Engineering, a past Senior Associate Dean and Interim Dean of the School, and a founding member of the Dartmouth Society of Fellows. He is a fellow of the American Geophysical Union and former editor-in-chief of the Journal of Atmospheric and Solar-Terrestrial Physics. Bill has chaired many science and program committees for NASA and NSF.

Lotko is a Senior Research Associate with the High Altitude Observatory (HAO) of the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colorado (since 2017). His research focuses on the interaction between the magnetosphere and ionosphere-thermosphere in geospace system dynamics, its plasma kinetic, magnetohydrodynamic and gas dynamic processes. He is co-investigator with the Center for Geospace Storms (CGS) led by Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory, with HAO leading Center research on ionosphere-thermosphere science.

Education

BS, Engineering Physics, University of Kansas 1973
MS, Physics, University of Missouri 1976
PhD, Physics, University of California, Los Angeles 1981

Awards

Fellow, American Geophysical Union

Professional Activities

Senior Research Associate, High Altitude Observatory, National Center for Atmospheric Research (current)
Co-Investigator, NASA Drive Center for Geospace Storms (current)
Founding member, Dartmouth Society of Fellows (2014–17)
Team member, International Space Science Institute, Bern, Team Investigation of Global Conductance Pattern and its Influence on the Dynamics of Geospace (2013–14) and Auroral Plasma Physics (1999–2002)
Editor-in-Chief, Journal of Atmospheric and Solar-Terrestrial Physics (2005–11)
Chair, Senior Review of the NASA Mission Operations and Data Analysis Program for the Heliophysics Extended Missions (2013)
Research Area Coordinator and Focus Group Co-Chair, NSF Geospace Environment Modeling Program (2014–2018)
Panelist, National Research Council, Decadal Strategy for Solar and Space Physics: A Science for a Technological Society (2010–11)
Project Team Leader, NASA Living With a Star Targeted Research & Technology Program (2007–11)
Co-Investigator, Center for Integrated Space Weather Modeling (2002–13)
Member, American Geophysical Union (Lifetime)

Selected Publications

Universal time influence on stormtime magnetosphere ionosphere coupling (2026), S. Ghag et al., AGU Advances.
Why doesn't the observed field-aligned current saturate with increasing interplanetary electric field? (2024), X. Yang et al., Geophys. Res. Lett.
Solar flare effects in the Earth’s magnetosphere (2021), J. Liu et al., Nature Physics.
Alfvénic thermospheric upwelling in a global geospace model (2020), B. Hogan, W. Lotko, K. Pham, Journal of Geophysical Research: Space Physics.
Alfvénic heating in the cusp ionosphere-thermosphere (2018), W. Lotko, B. Zhang, Journal of Geophysical Research: Space Physics.
The unifying principle of coordinated measurements in geospace science (2017), W. Lotko, Space Weather.
Ionospheric control of magnetotail reconnection (2014), W. Lotko, R.H. Smith, B. Zhang, J.E. Ouellette, O.J. Brambles, J.G. Lyon, Science, 345(6193), 184–187, doi:10.1126/science.1252907.
Properties of outflow-driven sawtooth substorms (2013), J.E. Ouellette, O.J. Brambles, J.G. Lyon, W. Lotko, B.N. Rogers, J. Geophys. Res. Space Physics 118, 3223–3232, doi:10.1002/jgra.50309.
Solar and Space Physics: A Science for a Technological Society (2013), W. Lotko (contributing author, Panel on Atmosphere-Ionosphere-Magnetosphere Interactions), National Academy Press, ISBN: 978-0-309-16428-3.
Enhancement of thermospheric mass density by soft electron precipitation (2012), B. Zhang, W. Lotko, O. Brambles, M. Wiltberger, W. Wang, P. Schmitt, J. Lyon, Geophys. Res. Lett. 39, L20102, doi:10.1029/2012GL053519.
Magnetosphere sawtooth oscillations induced by ionospheric outflow (2011), O.J. Brambles, W. Lotko, B. Zhang, M. Wiltberger, J. Lyon, R.J. Strangeway, Science 332, 1183, doi:10.1126/science.1202869.
The magnetosphere-ionosphere system from the perspective of plasma circulation: A tutorial (2007), W. Lotko, J. Atmos. Solar-Terr. Phys. 69(3), 191–211, doi:10.1016/j.jastp.2006.08.011.
Inductive magnetosphere-ionosphere coupling (2004), W. Lotko, J. Atmos. Solar-Terr. Phys., 66(15–16), 1443–1456, doi:10.1016/j.jastp.2004.03.027.
Auroral Plasma Physics (2003), W. Lotko (contributing author) edited by G. Paschmann, S. Haaland and R. Treumann. International Space Science Institute, vol. 15, Springer, ISBN: 978-1402009631.