Haley spends her days developing advanced computer models and algorithms to study solar energetic particles, galactic cosmic rays, and particles trapped in the Earth’s magnetic field.

Her primary passion is predicting solar particle events—great explosions on the Sun’s surface that accelerate highly charged particles into space and, sometimes, toward Earth. Often referred to as “solar storms” and described in weather-like terms, these phenomena are part of what scientists call space weather—the study of the radiation environment near Earth and its impact on human activit and technology.