Upton (together with David Hathaway) is one of the original authors of the Advective Flux Transport (AFT) SFT model and she continues to play a leading role in its further development.
Upton promotes the use of AFT as a cross-disciplinary tool. She currently uses AFT to investigate SFT processes and make solar cycle predictions. She has also championed its use in coronal modeling and as a resource for testing data analysis techniques. Current projects include plans to use AFT to create near-term (e.g., 3,5, and 7 day) forecasts for the space weather community, to evaluate the impact of future missions (e.g., L5 magnetogram), as well as to perform historic reconstructions (TSI, historic magnetograms).
Upton has extensive experience handling data from SOHO/MDI, SDO/HMI, and other instruments.
Upton is co-chair to the NASA/NOAA Solar Cycle 25 Prediction Panel.
Upton serves on the Solar Physics Division’s Student Organizing Committee. She assists with the organization and running of the Student Poster Contest.
Upton has mentored five REU; two instances led to publications for the student (one in ApJ letters and one in Science). She is currently mentoring her first postdoc.
Upton is the lead developer and maintainer of a website (solarcyclescience.com) that is intended to share solar knowledge and data with the general public and scientists alike.
Upton has served the scientific community on many occasions by lending her expertise as a referee for Scientific Journals such as ApJ and Solar Physics as well as by serving on review panels for both NSF and NASA.