Tag: Aerosol/Cloud Physics/Radiation

ESSIC Associate Research Scientist Santiago Gassó recently accepted an invitation to participate in the South to North Atlantic Transect (SoNoAT) cruise onboard the Polarstern, a German research vessel, as a part of a “Floating Summer School”. The cruise will depart in the summer from Pt. Stanley in the Falkland Islands and end in Bremerhaven, Germany after five weeks.  On the cruise, 50 graduate students from all over the world will be taught the principles of oceanography, climate, and …

ESSIC / CICS-MD Post-doctoral associate Youtong Zheng recently co-authored a paper published in Science titled, “Aerosol-driven droplet concentrations dominate coverage and water of oceanic low level clouds”. The article introduces a methodology for ascribing cloud properties to cloud condensation nuclei (CCN) and isolating aerosol effects from meteorological effects.  This new finding is largely based on a series of novel satellite remote sensing techniques of estimating the vertical …

Zhanqing Li, AOSC/ESSIC Professor, recently gave a Core Science Keynote Presentation at last week’s AMS Annual Conference. The presentation, titled “Can air pollution fuel extreme weather events and contribute to long-term climate changes”, discusses the major impact that aerosols can have on extreme weather events such as heavy rainfall, thunderstorms, and lightning over densely populated regions. Despite the government shutdown that impacted the conference’s overall attendance, the …

ESSIC / CICS-MD Professor Zhanqing Li and Graduate Assistant II Tianning Su recently published a paper in Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics titled “Relationships between the planetary boundary layer height and surface pollutants derived from lidar observations over China: regional pattern and influencing factors”. This paper discusses the frequency of severe air pollution episodes in China, analyzing the relationship between planetary boundary layer height (PBLH) and surface pollutants.  …

ESSIC Assistant Research Scientist Lauren Zamora recently published a paper titled “A satellite-based estimate of combustion aerosol cloud microphysical effects over the Arctic Ocean” in Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics. The paper discusses the effects of cloud fraction (CF) and cloud phase (CP), two poorly understood processes that drive cloud properties, on Arctic climate predictions.  The authors use 10 million satellite observations to quantify large-scale microphysical effects of …

ESSIC Associate Research Scientist Santiago Gassó recently participated in a two-day Peer Application Segment Review for the SABIA-MAR 1A mission. SABIA-MAR (The Brazilian Argentine Satellite for Information of the Sea) is a satellite manufactured and designed by CONAE, Argentina’s space agency.  Gassó, along with other NASA scientists, provided advice and troubleshooting tips for the main sensor in SABIA-MAR, a 17-band spectrometer (VIS to IR) with 200m resolution for ocean monitoring.  …

A recent article published in NASA’s Earth Observatory featured an interview with ESSIC Associate Research Scientist Santiago Gassó about his observation of a large dust storm that occurred in Greenland. The dust in Greenland is mostly made up of glacial flour, a fine-grained silt formed by glaciers grinding and pulverizing rock.  These Arctic and high-latitude dust storms can be hard to spot with satellites because of cloud cover, but the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer …

The Huinca Renancó Middle School in Córdoba, Argentina recognized ESSIC associate research scientist Santiago Gassó during the school’s recent Science Week. Part of the week’s activities included naming school classrooms after prominent Argentine scientists and Gassó was among the researchers chosen. Gassó’s connection with the school materialized following his BBCMundo interview (BBC’s portal in Spanish) in which he discussed the transport of Saharan dust to Latin America.  The …

ESSIC / CICS-MD post-doctoral associate Youtong Zheng was recently accepted for publication by the AGU Journal Geophysical Research Letters for his article, “Estimating the decoupling degree of subtropical marine stratocumulus decks from satellite”. In the piece, Zheng introduces a new approach for estimating the “decoupling degree”– the difference between the stratocumulus cloud-base height and the lifting condensation level– of subtropical stratocumulus decks using passive …