Harvard–Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics
She completed a one-year ASP term at the National Center for Atmospheric Research (1977-1978) and joined the Harvard–Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in 1978 where she established a research group in solar-terrestrial physics, a position she kept until 2000. Habbal was also appointed as a professor of solar terrestrial physics at the Institute of Mathematical and Physical Sciences at the University of Wales, Aberystwyth. Between (1995-2000) she was a lecturer at Harvard University.