John D. Richardson studies space plasmas, including the solar wind and its interaction with the interstellar medium. MIT identifies him as a principal investigator of the Voyager plasma experiment and describes earlier work on plasma transport in planetary magnetospheres.[ref]
https://www.space.mit.edu/people/john-richardson/. MIT Kavli Institute, John Richardson, research biography
His 2008 Voyager 2 study analyzed plasma measurements across the termination shock. The thermal ions were cooler than a simple picture of bulk-flow energy becoming thermal-ion heat would suggest. The result made the partition of energy among particle populations central to understanding the shock.[ref]
The experiment illustrates how a remote boundary becomes a local measurement. Four Faraday cups sampled particle currents over energy-per-charge ranges; combining differently oriented detectors allowed the team to infer plasma density, flow and temperature. These inferred properties depend on the measured spectra and distribution model, rather than being direct readings of a thermometer.[ref]
Plasma temperature distributions in the heliosheath by J. D. Richardson. Sections 2–3: four Faraday cups and proton spectral fitting
John D. Richardson, portrait identified by the MIT Kavli Institute
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