She made contributions to the study of solar wind particles and fields, sun-Earth relations, and magnetospheric physics.

It was he who originally introduced young Joan to auroras when, one night, he coaxed her out of bed to witness the northern lights flickering above an empty golf course near their home.

[10] She later attended Syracuse University, where she studied solid state theory in the physics department under Melvin Lax.

[3] Joan Feynman spent the bulk of her career studying the interactions between the solar wind and the Earth's magnetosphere.

[11] In 1985 Feynman accepted a position at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California,[16] where she remained until her retirement.

Using data collected by NASA spacecraft Explorer 33, she demonstrated that the occurrence of auroras is a product of the interaction between the Earth's magnetosphere and the magnetic field of the solar wind.

High-velocity coronal mass ejections are known to cause geomagnetic storms, which can have dangerous effects on both spacecraft and on humans in space.

Often, the commencement of such storms is coupled with a high influx of protons, which can wreak havoc on communications systems and space flight activities.

Feynman's model ultimately helped engineers determine the flux of high-energy particles that would affect a spacecraft over its functional lifetime.

[11] She studied the influence of the sun on patterns of wintertime climate anomalies known as the Arctic oscillation or North Annular Mode (NAM).

[12] Feynman and her colleagues also discovered a link between solar variability and climate change in ancient water levels of the Nile River.