About

Richard A. Wilson is a Professor of Anthropology at Princeton University and serves as Co-Director of the Princeton University Human Rights Initiative. He earned his PhD from the London School of Economics and Political Science in 1990. His areas of specialization include human rights, legal anthropology, criminal law, free speech, hate speech, hate crime, and transitional justice. Wilson has authored or edited eleven books on topics related to human rights, transitional justice, truth and reconciliation commissions, and international criminal tribunals, with his latest book titled 'Incitement on Trial: Prosecuting International Speech Crimes.' His research projects include a focus on the U.S. criminal justice system and bias-motivated crimes, particularly examining the enforcement and impact of hate crime laws in the United States following reforms enacted after the 2020 Black Lives Matter protests. Wilson's work combines critical social theory, legal anthropology, and empirical research to analyze issues of justice, law enforcement, and human rights.

Research topics

• Atmospheric sciences
• Astrobiology
• Geophysics
• Physics
• Environmental science
• Meteorology
• Astronomy
• Geology
• Climatology

Selected publications

• Diurnal Temperature Variations and Migrating Thermal Tides in the Martian Lower Atmosphere Observed by the Emirates Mars InfraRed Spectrometer

  Journal of Geophysical Research Planets · 2025-10-01 · 1 citations

  preprintOpen access

  Abstract The Martian atmosphere experiences large diurnal variations due to the ∼24.6 hr planetary rotation and its low heat capacity. Understanding such variations on a planetary scale is limited due to the lack of observations, which are greatly addressed with the recent advent of the Emirates Mars Mission (EMM). As a result of its unique high‐altitude orbit, instruments onboard are capable of obtaining a full geographic and local time coverage of the Martian atmosphere every 9–10 Martian days, approximately ∼5° in solar longitude ( L S ). This enables investigations of the diurnal variation of the current climate on Mars on a planetary scale without significant local time (LT) gaps or confusions from correlated seasonal variations. Here, we present the results of diurnal temperature variations and thermal tides in the Martian atmosphere using temperature profiles retrieved from the Emirates Mars InfraRed Spectrometer (EMIRS) observations. The data during the primary mission is included, covering an entire Martian Year (MY) starting from MY 36 L S = 49°. The diurnal temperature patterns suggest a dominant diurnal tide in most seasons, while the semi‐diurnal tide presents a similar amplitude near the perihelion. The seasonal variation of the diurnal tide latitudinal distribution is well explained by the total vorticity due to zonal wind, while that of the semi‐diurnal tide following both dust and water ice clouds, and the ter‐diurnal tide following only dust. Comparison with the updated Mars Planetary Climate Model (PCM, version 6) suggests improvements in simulating the dust and water cycles, as well as their radiative processes.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Transient and tidal wave precursors and atmospheric impacts of Mars’ flushing storm initiated regional storms in reanalysis data

  Icarus · 2025-06-19 · 2 citations

  article
  PublisherDOI

• Impact of Grid Resolution on Wave‐Mean Flow Interactions With High Resolution Mars Global Climate Model Simulations

  Geophysical Research Letters · 2025-01-24 · 3 citations

  articleOpen access

  Abstract We have executed a series of simulations with the NASA Ames Mars Global Climate Model by systematically increasing horizontal and vertical resolution with the goal of resolving small‐scale waves that significantly affect the mean thermal and momentum structure of the atmosphere. Our reference high‐resolution simulation is 1/4° horizontal resolution and ∼1.5 km vertical resolution, and we compare results to a low‐resolution simulation that is ∼4° in the horizontal and ∼4 km in the vertical. We show that the main biases in the zonal mean temperature and momentum fields between the low‐ and high‐resolution simulations can be alleviated by including parameterized orographic and non‐orographic gravity waves at low resolution.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Quantifying High-Frequency Migrating Tides in the Atmosphere of Mars with Observations from EMIRS, Curiosity and Perseverance

  2025-09-02 · 1 citations

  articleOpen access

  Atmospheric thermal tides are global oscillations driven by periodic solar heating that strongly influence circulation and vertical coupling in the Martian atmosphere. Previous studies have largely focused on the first and second migrating harmonics, while recent work has revealed higher-frequency harmonics in surface pressure records. However, these detections are limited to single locations and spacecraft observations have only confirmed the global structure up to the third harmonic. Here, we present the first global-scale characterization of migrating thermal tides up to the 8th harmonic as observed simultaneously in spacecraft temperature retrievals from the EMIRS instrument aboard the Emirates Mars Mission, sampling the lower atmosphere, and surface pressure measurements from the Curiosity and Perseverance rovers. We examine the latitudinal and seasonal structure and show that high-frequency migrating tides have long vertical wavelengths, suggestive of near-resonant Lamb waves. Nearly identical seasonal amplitude-phase evolution across the longitudinally separated landers, indicate dominance of migrating tides.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Ter-diurnal Atmospheric Tide on Mars

  2024-04-26

  preprintOpen access

  Cyclic absorption of solar radiation generates oscillations in atmospheric fields. These oscillations are called atmospheric or thermal tides, which are furthermore modified by topography and surface properties. This leads to a complex mix of sun-synchronous and non sun-synchronous tides that propagate around the planet eastward and westward. This study focuses on analyzing the ter-diurnal component (period of 8 hr) from surface pressure observations by Mars Science Laboratory (MSL), InSight, Viking Lander (VL) 1, and VL2. General Circulation Model (GCM) results are used to provide a global context for interpreting the observed ter-diurnal tide properties. MSL and InSight have a clear and similar seasonal cycle, with local amplitude peaks at around solar longitude (Ls) 60◦ , Ls 130◦ and Ls 320◦ . The amplitude peak at Ls 320◦ is related to the annual dust storm, while the dust storm around Ls 230◦ is not detected by either platforms. During the global dust storms, MSL, VL1, and VL2 detect their highest amplitudes. GCM predicts the weakest amplitudes at the equinoxes, while the strongest ones are predicted in summertime for both hemispheres. GCM amplitudes are typically lower than observed, but match better during the aphelion season. During this time, model results suggest that the two most prominent modes are the sun-synchronous ter-diurnal tide (TW3) and an eastward propagating resonantly-enhanced Kelvin wave (TE3). Simulations with and without the effect of radiative heating by water ice clouds indicate the clouds may play a significant role in forcing the ter-diurnal tide during northern hemisphere summer season.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Dust-storm forcing of Rossby waves on Mars

  Icarus · 2024-02-07 · 10 citations

  articleSenior author
  PublisherDOI

• Inferences of water–ice cloud physics determined from MAVEN/IUVS aerosol retrievals and Mars GCM comparisons

  Icarus · 2024-07-27

  articleOpen access
  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Ter‐Diurnal Atmospheric Tide on Mars

  Journal of Geophysical Research Planets · 2024-08-01 · 4 citations

  articleOpen access

  Abstract Cyclic absorption of solar radiation generates oscillations in atmospheric fields. These oscillations are called atmospheric or thermal tides, which are furthermore modified by topography and surface properties. This leads to a complex mix of sun‐synchronous and non‐sun‐synchronous tides that propagate around the planet eastward and westward. This study focuses on analyzing the ter‐diurnal component (period of 8 hr) from surface pressure observations by Mars Science Laboratory (MSL), InSight, Viking Lander (VL) 1, and VL2. General Circulation Model (GCM) results are used to provide a global context for interpreting the observed ter‐diurnal tide properties. MSL and InSight have a clear and similar seasonal cycle, with local amplitude peaks at around solar longitude (Ls) 60°, Ls 130°, and Ls 320°. The amplitude peak at Ls 320° is related to the annual dust storm, while the Ls 230° dust storm is not detected by either platforms. During global dust storms, MSL, VL1, and VL2 detect their highest amplitudes. The GCM predicts the weakest amplitudes at the equinoxes, while the strongest ones are predicted in summer for both hemispheres. GCM amplitudes tend to differ from the observations but match slightly better around the aphelion season. During this time, model results suggest that the two most prominent modes are the sun‐synchronous ter‐diurnal tide and an eastward propagating resonantly enhanced Kelvin wave. Simulations with and without the effect of radiative heating by water ice clouds indicate the clouds may play a significant role in forcing the ter‐diurnal tide during northern hemisphere summer season.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Impact of a bimodal dust distribution on the 2018 Martian global dust storm with the NASA Ames Mars global climate model

  Icarus · 2024-12-19 · 4 citations

  article
  PublisherDOI

• Water Transport in the Mars Northern Winter Polar Atmosphere: Observations and Simulations

  Journal of Geophysical Research Planets · 2024-05-01 · 4 citations

  articleSenior author

  Abstract This study involving both observations and simulations furthers our understanding of water transport in the Martian northern polar region, a critical component of the global water cycle, and explores strengths and weaknesses in simulations of the polar atmosphere. Observations of the northern polar winter by the Mars Climate Sounder (MCS) onboard the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter show extensive water ice clouds over the polar ice cap throughout the 300–3 Pa (∼10–50 km) vertical column within the vortex during the entire winter season. The observations also indicate that the vortex evolves throughout its depth on a broad range of timescales, from sub‐diurnal to seasonal. Time sequences of these data together with results from a Mars global circulation model and Ensemble Mars Atmosphere Reanalysis System reanalysis (EMARS) are used to study the evolution of the winter polar atmosphere and to examine dynamic mechanisms for transporting water across the vortex boundary. Model simulations and reanalysis show a similar temperature structure to observations, although they struggle to reproduce some of the detailed features such as the extent of polar warming above the vortex and the magnitude of the temperature minima inside the vortex. The free run simulation also fails to capture the vertically distributed water ice cloud due to a general absence of transport across the vortex boundary. EMARS results, with assimilated MCS temperatures, show a greater amount of water entering the vortex at pressures below 200 Pa, leading to a more vertically extended cloud within the vortex and improving agreement with observations.

  PublisherDOI

Frequent coauthors

• M. A. Kahre

  75 shared

• Tanguy Bertrand

  58 shared

• David Spiegler

  Cornell University

  50 shared

• Stanley A. Changnon

  45 shared

• Theodore F. Fathauer

  40 shared

• M. I. Richardson

  Aeolis Research (United States)

  39 shared

• Steven J. Greybush

  Pennsylvania State University

  38 shared

• Patricia M. Pauley

  36 shared

Awards & honors

• Russell Sage Foundation (Fellowship)
• National Endowment for the Humanities (Fellowship)