MEET THE TEAM: PEDRINA TERRA DOS SANTOS, PH.D.
RESEARCH PROFESSOR, CCORE LEAD SCIENTIST
AREA OF RESEARCH:
CLIMATE AND SPACE SCIENCES, CCORE
CURRENT FSI INITIATIVES:
THE CCORE INITIATIVE, CCORE
CONTACT:
PEDRINA.SANTOS@UCF.EDU
PEDRINA’S BIOGRAPHY
Dr. Terra earned her B.S. degree in Electrical Engineering in 1998, followed by an M.S. in 2000 and a Ph.D. in Space Geophysics in 2005. In 2002, she joined the Applied and Computational Mathematics Department at Sheffield University in the UK as a visiting scientist as part of her Ph.D. studies, where she utilized the Sheffield University Plasmasphere-Ionosphere Model (SUPIM). In 2006, Dr. Terra became a postdoctoral associate in the Space and Atmospheric Sciences group at the Arecibo Observatory (AO), where she worked for over seventeen years until the observatory closed in 2023.
During her career, Dr. Terra developed a comprehensive skill set that included instrumentation, mentoring, communication, leadership, and management. She led the Optical Laboratory at AO and established the Center for Climate Open Research (CCORE) in Culebra, Puerto Rico, formerly the Remote Optical Facility (ROF).
In 2023, Dr. Terra joined the Florida Space Institute at the University of Central Florida as a Research Professor.
PEDRINA’S RESEARCH
Dr. Terra’s primary research is in Geospace sciences, specifically on comprehending the Earth’s neutral and ionized atmosphere as an interconnected and interdependent system. She is interested in identifying long-term trends within this system and examining the impacts of terrestrial and space weather on it. These research endeavors are closely tied to enhancing our understanding of climate change, which remains a significant hurdle for the scientific community.
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