Dr. Thomas Lytton Cline

Astrophysics Science Division
NASA/GSFC
Code 661, Astroparticle Physics Laboratory
Greenbelt, MD 20771

tel: 301-286-8375
fax: 301-286-1684
e-mail: Thomas.L.Cline @ nasa.gov

Present Position

2004-present Goddard Emeritus
2002-2004 Goddard Senior Fellow
1982-2004 Senior Scientist, Lab. for High Energy Astrophysics
1961-2004 Physicist, NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center

Brief Bio

Dr. Cline began with a balloon-borne study as his PhD thesis at MIT (that became the first published experiment in gamma-ray astronomy). He then joined NASA to spent his first decade at Goddard enjoying the opportunities to work with Frank McDonald on some early space-borne experiments in interplanetary and solar-flare particles, and to fly some of his own experiments. The many advances and mini-discoveries in the 1960s and early '70s that resulted from Goddard's, the Lab's, and even Cline's own efforts were the basis of a very exciting and satisfying period in history. Then, Cline's solar flare x-ray experiment in 1973 was the first to verify the discovery of cosmic gamma-ray bursts (GRBs), holding him hostage to that subdiscipline ever since. The interplanetary network (IPN) he promoted deepened the burst mystery by showing them not to be related to known x-ray phenomena. The localization of one anomalous 1979 transient source within the N49 supernova remnant (SNR) waited 13 years for the confirmation of his ideas that the repeating category of gamma ray transients were entirely separate from GRBs, and originated in distant SNR sources. Later, Cline helped envision the GRB experiment on Compton-GRO that promoted a wider range of interest in bursts with its demonstration that their source pattern is at least consistent with a cosmological origin. He helped enable Dr. Scott Barthelmy's creation of the GCN, an automatic gamma-ray transient alert system (cited by Nature magazine as the first use of the Internet as an active research tool) and also helped promote the development of robotic telescopes to investigate burst afterglows. After a variety of space probe failures and cancellations through the 1980s and '90s, the final IPN that Cline helped create enabled half as many cosmological Z measurements as Compton-CGO and BeppoSAX combined, including the most distant source ever, at Z = 4.5. Cline has maintained involvement in this field into his retirement, and was extremely pleased to see the successful November 2004 launch of the Swift mission. This incredible 21st-century spacecraft, from Goddard and a variety of collaborators, uses a GRB imager to autonomously reorient both x-ray and optical telescopes to study GRB afterglows in real time. Cline appreciates his good fortune to be involved throughout the entire evolution of the study of cosmic gamma ray transients. His latest good luck - several years after his 'retirement' - was to be co-winner of the First Prize given for science publishing by the Russian Academy of Sciences, in 2008.

Educational Background

1955-1961: Ph.D. in Physics, MIT, Cambridge, MA.
Thesis: "An Investigation in High-Energy Gamma Ray Astronomy"

1954-1955: Student, St. Lawrence Univsity, Canton, NY.

1950-1954: BA with Honors in Mathematics, Hiram College, Hiram, OH.

Research Interests

Cosmic ray phenomena, from GRBs and SGRs to solar radiation and interplanetary particles.

Current Projects

Swift, Interplanetary GRB Network (Ulysses, Wind-Konus, Mars Odyssey)

Previous Scientific Roles

Principal Investigator:
ISPM, Helios-2, IMP-6 and IMP-7, OGO-5, OGO-1 and OGO-3.

Cc-Investigator:
Wind(TGRS), NEAR, SAC-B, Mars-96, SMM, Compton-GRO, ISEE-3, ISEE-1, IMP-1 to IMP-5, Explorer-12 and -14.

Guest Investigator:
Rossi-XTE, Hubble Space Telescope, Einstein Observatory.

Project Scientist:
HETE-2, HETE, ARGO D-8, ACCESS (Study P.S.), OGO-5 (Asst. P.S.).

Program Scientist:
GRO(1984-85), HEAO (1970-71).

Selected Publications

Selected from 380 papers, including 150 in refereed journals and over 200 in conference proceedings and other sources. In addition, Cline has co-authored over 400 GCNs, the Internet rapid alerts that provide observers with cosmic gamma-ray transient data, enabling multi-disciplinary afterglow studies and searches for associated phenomena.

2007
"Giant Flare in SGR 1806-20 and Its Compton Reflection from the Moon", Frederiks, D. D., Golenetskii, S. V., Palshin, V. D., Aptekar, R. L. Ilyinski, V. N., Oleinik, F. P., Mazets, E. P., and Cline, T. L., Astronomy Letters, 2007, 33, 1-18.

2004
"On the Astronomy of Cosmic Gamma Ray Bursts," Cline, T. L. and Barthelmy, S. D., Recent Res. Devel. Astron. Astrophys., 2(2004), 173-192.

2003
"Swift: The Next-Generation Gamma-Ray Burst Mission," Cline, T. L., Gehrels, C. A., and Norris, J. P., Proceedings of the Tenth Marcel Grossmann Conference, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in preparation.

2001
"Reuven Ramaty: Obituary", Cline, Thomas L., Gehrels, Neil, Lingenfelter, Richard E., Physics Today, 54, 80.

2000
"Observations of a Possible New Soft Gamma Repeater, SGR 1801-23", Cline, T. L., Frederiks, D. D., Golenetskii, S., Hurley, K., Kouveliotou, C., Mazets, E., and van Paradijs, J., Ap. J. (Letters), 531, 407-410.

1999
"Discovery of Contemporaneous Optical Radiation from a Gamma-Ray Burst", Akerlof, C., et al., Nature. 398, 400-402.

1999
"A Giant, Periodic Flare from the Soft Gamma Repeater SGR1900+14", Hurley, K., Cline, T., Mazets, E., et al., Nature, 397, 41-43.

1999
"Precise GRB Source Locations from the Renewed Interplanetary Network", Cline, T. L., et al., Astron. Astrophys., Suppl. Ser. 138, 557-558.

1998
"SGR 1900+14", Cline, T. L., Mazets, E. P., and Golenetskii, S. V., IAU Circular # 7002.

1997
"A Gamma-Ray Burst Polarimeter Study", Cline, T. L., et al., Proc. 25th ICRC (Durban, SA), 5, 25-28.

1997
"Transient Gamma-Ray Astronomy Alert Systems", Cline, T. L., Barthelmy, S., Butterworth, P., and Gehrels, N., Proc. TEV Gamma-Ray Workshop, Kruger Park, SA.

1996
"The Mystery of Gamma-Ray Bursts: Undeciphered Radiations from Unknown Origins", Cline, Thomas, Current Perspectives in High Energy Astrophysics, NASA Ref. Publ. 1391, ed., Jonathan F. Ormes, 147-160.

1994
"Network Synthesis Localization of Two Soft Gamma Repeaters", K. Hurley et al., Ap. J. (Letters), 431, L31-L34.

1990
"Gamma Ray Bursts, Observed Properties and Sources", Cline, T. L., The Astronomy and Astrophysics Encyclopedia, ed., S. Maran, 284, (van Nostrand Reinhold, publ.).

1987
"Gamma Ray Transients", Cline, T. L., Essays in Space Science, NASA CP-2464, eds, Ramaty, R., Cline, T. L., and Ormes, J. F., 295-316.

1984
"Three Precise Gamma Ray Burst Source Locations", Cline, T. L., et al., Ap. J. (Letters), 286, L15-L18.

1982
"Precise Source Location of the Anomalous 1979 March 5 Gamma Ray Transient", Cline, T. L., et al., Ap. J. (Letters), 255, L45-L48.

1981
"High Precision Source Location of the 1978 November 19 Gamma-Ray Burst", Cline, T. L., et al., Ap. J. (Letters), 246, L133-L140.

1980
"Detection of a Fast, Intense and Unusual Gamma Ray Transient", Cline, T. L., et al., Ap. J. (Letters), 237, Ll-L5.

1980
"The Unique Cosmic Event of l979 March 5", Cline, T. L., Comments on Astrophysics, 9, 13-22.

1979
"Gamma-Ray Burst Observations from Helios 2", Cline, T. L., Desai, U. D., Pizzichini, G., Spizzichino, A., Trainor, J. H., Klebesadel, R. W., Helmken, H., Ap. J. (Letters) 232, Ll-L5.

1973
"Energy Spectra of Cosmic Gamma-Ray Bursts", Cline, T. L., Desai, U. D., Klebesadel, R. W., and Strong, I. B., Ap. J. (Letters) l85, Ll-L5.

1968
"Relativistic Electrons from Solar Flares", Cline, T. L., McDonald, F. B., Solar Phys. 5, 507-530.

1967
"High-Energy Solar X-Rays of 7 July l966", Cline, T. L., Holt, S. S., Hones, E. W., Jr., J. G. R., 73, 434-437.

1966
"Proposal to Develop and Define Gamma-Ray Astronomy Investigations based on Spark Chamber Technology", Cline, T. L., Fichtel, C. E., and Kniffen, D. A., GSFC X-611-66-445.

1964
"Detection of Interplanetary 3 to l2 MeV Electrons", Cline, T. L., Ludwig, G. H., McDonald, F. B., Phys. Rev. Ltrs., l3, 786-789.

1963
"New Evidence for Long-Lived Streams in Interplanetary Space", Bryant, D. A., Cline, T. L., Desai, U. D., McDonald, F. B., P. R. Ltrs., ll , No. 4, l44-l46.

1962
"Explorer XII Observations of Solar Cosmic Rays and Energetic Storm Particles after the Solar Flare of 28 September l96l", Bryant, D. A., Cline, T. L., Desai, U. D., McDonald, F. B., J. Geophys. Res., 67, No. l3, 4983-5000.

1961
"Search for High-Energy Cosmic Gamma Rays", Cline, T. L., Phys. Rev. Letters, 7, No. 3, l09-ll2.