After postdoctoral research at the Naval Research Laboratory, Karpen became a researcher in the Solar-Terrestrial Relationships Branch of the Naval Research Laboratory in 1984. She joined the Space Weather Laboratory of the Goddard Space Flight Center in 2008, and became chief of the laboratory in 2012.[2]
Recognition
The American Astronomical Society (AAS) named Karpen to the 2022 class of AAS Fellows, "for her sustained contributions to understanding the formation and dynamics of the solar corona and wind".[3]