Dr. Steven Snowden

Astrophysics Science Division
NASA/GSFC
Code 662, X-ray Astrophysics Laboratory
Greenbelt, MD 20771

tel: 301-286-8100
fax: 301-286-1684
e-mail: Steven.L.Snowden @ nasa.gov

Present Position

NASA Astrophysicist
NASA XMM-Newton Deputy Project Manager and Technical Officer

Brief Bio

After receiving his Ph.D, Steve Snowden worked for half a year on the Diffuse X-ray Spectrometer, a shuttle attached payload of the University of Wisconsin Space Physics Laboratory. After that he spent five and a half years at the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics in Germany, working on the ROSAT project, primarily on the soft X-ray diffuse background from the all-sky survey. Steve joined the USRSDC at GSFC in 1993 August, where he worked until 1998 when he took the position of lead scientist for the XMM GOF. In 2005 Steve became the Deputy Project Manager and Technical Officer for the NASA part of the XMM-Newton project.

Steve's primary responsibility at GSFC is science support for the XMM Guest Observer Facility. This includes support for the US XMM users community from the proposal process to the analysis of XMM data.

Educational Background

Steve received his BS in Mathematics, Physics, and Astronomy in 1978 from the University of Washington, his MS in physics in 1979 and PhD in physics in 1986 from the University of Wisconsin - Madison. The title of Steve's thesis is: Neutral Hydrogen and the Spatial Structure of the Diffuse X-ray Background.

Research Interests

Steve's scientific interest lies in the study of the soft X-ray diffuse background and the local interstellar medium. More recently there have been excursions into clusters of galaxies and solar wind charge exchange emission from the magnetosheath and solar system.

Current Projects

Diffuse X-ray emission from solar wind charge exchange

The distribution of hot plasma in the Milky Way and the Magellanic Clouds

Temperature profiles of clusters of galaxies

Studies of the Coalsack Nebula

Selected Publications

2008 Observation of Solar Wind Charge Exchange Emission from Exospheric Material in and outside Earth's Magnetosheath
Snowden,S. L., Collier, M. R., Cravens, T., Kuntz, K. D., Lepri, S. T., Robertson, I., and Tomas, L., in The Astrophysical Journal, submitted

2008 A Catalog of Galaxy Clusters Observed by XMM-Newton
Snowden, S. L., Mushotzky, R. F., Kuntz, K. D., and Davis, D. S., in Astronomy and Astrophysics, 478, 615

2004 XMM-Newton Observation of Solar Wind Charge Exchange Emission
Snowden, S. L., Collier, M. R., and Kuntz, K. D., in The Astrophysical Journal, 610, 1182

2001 The Hot Part of the Interstellar Medium
Snowden, S. L. in The Century of Space Science, (Kluwer Academic Publishers), 581-605.

1998 Progress on Establishing the Spatial Distribution of Material Responsible for the 1/4 keV SXRB, Local and Halo Components
S. L. Snowden, R. Egger, D. Finkbeiner, M. J. Freyberg, and P. P. Plucinsky, in The Astrophysical Journal, 493, 715-729.

1997 ``ROSAT Survey Diffuse Background Maps, Paper II''
S. L. Snowden, R. Egger, M. J. Freyberg, D. McCammon, P. P. Plucinsky, W. T. Sanders, J. H. M. M. Schmitt, J. Trümper, and W. Voges, in The Astrophysical Journal, 485, 125-135.

1994 ``Analysis of ROSAT XRT/PSPC Observations of Extended Objects and the Diffuse Background''
S. L. Snowden, D. McCammon, D. N. Burrows, and J. A. Mendenhall, in The Astrophysical Journal, 424, 714-728.

1990 ``A Model for the Distribution of Material Generating the Soft X-ray Diffuse Background''
S. L. Snowden, D. P. Cox, D. McCammon, and W. T. Sanders, in The Astrophysical Journal, 354, 211-219.

Publications at the ADS website.