Frederick L. Scarf


Frederick Leonard Scarf was an American physicist known for his work in plasma wave physics and his leadership in developing space-based instruments to study the solar wind and planetary magnetospheres. After earning a PhD in physics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, he switched to space science in the early 1960s, working for TRW. Scarf played a central role in advocating for and designing plasma wave instruments aboard numerous NASA and international missions, including OGO-5, Pioneer Venus Orbiter, Giotto, ISEE-3, and the Voyager program spacecraft, where he served as the principal investigator for the Plasma Wave Subsystem.
His innovative conversion of plasma wave data from the Voyager's PWS into audio recordings, called the "sounds of space" by journalists, gained public and scientific attention. A strong proponent of international collaboration, Scarf worked on joint projects with European, Japanese, and Soviet space programs, even during periods of official US policy restrictions. He died suddenly while visiting the Soviet Space Research Institute in Moscow. In recognition of his contributions, he was awarded with two NASA Exceptional Scientific Achievement Medals, and the American Geophysical Union established the Fred L. Scarf Award in his honor.

Biography

Frederick Leonard Scarf was born on July 25, 1930, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the son of Jewish emigrants from Ukraine and Russia, Lene and Louis Scarf. He had a twin brother, mathematical economist Herbert Eli Scarf. He studied physics at Temple University and then in Massachusetts Institute of Technology ; he used the Bethe–Salpeter equation to study the deuteron for his thesis. He then became a researcher at the University of Washington, studying theoretical quantum electrodynamics. Around 1959, he took sabbatical and went to CERN. At that time he became interested in space physics. While at CERN, he met a friend from MIT who arranged him a visit to TRW.
File:NASM-NASM2011-02430.jpg|thumb|A flight spare for the plasma wave sensor system carried on the OGO-5 satellite. Gift of Fred Scarf to the Smithsonian [Air and Space Museum].
In 1962, Scarf left the university to become a researcher at TRW, and then a Chief Scientist for Space Research and Technology in the Applied Technology Division of the TRW Space and Technology Group. Scarf and his colleagues at TRW realized that plasma wave experiments were being overlooked by NASA; they pressed NASA to change it. Scarf was a principal investigator or co-investigator of plasma wave experiments for multiple NASA spacecraft, starting with a plasma wave instrument on OGO-5, which detected "electrostatic waves in a collisionless shock", and then on Pioneer 8, 9, and the Pioneer Venus Orbiter.
Scarf was an advocate of including the plasma wave detector on the Voyager program spacecraft. He became the Principal Investigator of the Plasma Wave Subsystem. He developed a way to transform plasma wave measurements into sound, called the "sounds of space" by journalists. M. Mitchell Waldrop described these sounds in a Science article:
The "sounds of space" were released on cassettes and CDs. After Scarf's death in 1988, Donald Gurnett became the PI of the PWS.
When NASA rejected a space probe mission to Halley's Comet, Scarf, with the help of NASA's Robert W. Farquhar, found a way to bypass bureaucracy "to gain control of an orbiting research satellite that had already outlived its usefulness". ISEE-3 was sent from its L1 point to the comet Giacobini-Zinner in September 1985; Scarf himself told the reporter: “We stole it ”. The probe proved that the comet "sends out shock waves as it passes through space". ISEE-3 became the first space probe that studied a comet.
Scarf's student Christopher T. Russell described some of his discoveries:
Scarf was known for his "generosity and openness" in sharing his observational data, as a good mentor, and as "a strong advocate of international cooperation in space". He was involved into European space probe missions, like ESA's Giotto mission to Halley's Comet, and played "a key role with the Japanese space program". Scarf also worked on multiple Soviet space missions, like the Soviet Phobos program. When NASA was prohibited to participate in joint Soviet-American space programs, Scarf was one of a few scientists who continued to work with Soviets despite this ruling. To do it, Scarf became a part-time employee of UCLA, that allowed him "to get a grant from NASA to continue his work with the Soviets". One time he attempted to make NASA donate a spare Voyager instrument to the Soviets to continue research, but NASA refused. Similar instrument was then transferred by ESA, which asked Scarf to be a co-investigator. He was a member of multiple groups and committees, including the interagency Consultative Group, on the Space Science Board and its Committee on Solar and Space Physics, in the committee of the National Academy of Sciences study of Space Science in the Twenty-First Century, a member of the Committee on Solar-Terrestrial Research of the National [Research Council |National Research Council], for which he served as a chairman in 1974–79.

Personal life and death

Scarf died suddenly on July 17, 1988, while visiting the Soviet Space Research Institute in Moscow. He had no health issues; a brain tumor was suspected but no official cause of death was published. In Moscow, Scarf was involved in planning of further Soviet Mars missions.
Russell wrote that colleagues would miss Scarf's "openness, advice, perseverance, amiability, sound judgment, humor, and enthusiasm" and called him "a true romantic of the space age who loved space science with a rare passion".
Scarf was married and had four children.

Awards and recognition

Scarf was "widely regarded as the world’s leading expert" in plasma wave physics and in solar wind. His obituary states that "Fred's name was synonymous, for a quarter century, with the most ubiquitous transient phenomena in solar system plasmas: electrostatic plasma waves".
Scarf was awarded NASA Exceptional Scientific Achievement Medal in 1981 and 1986.
The American Geophysical Union established the Fred L. Scarf Award annually "in recognition of an outstanding dissertation that contributes directly to solar-planetary science", which is given annually.

Discography

  • , 1982
  • , 1986

    Selected publications

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