AS&M staff of researchers have supported meteorological, climatological, and atmospheric radiation studies. The AS&M staff has made significant contributions to major NASA projects such as the Earth Radiation Budget Experiment (ERBE) and the Clouds and the Earth's Radiant Energy System (CERES) component of the Earth Observing System (EOS).
Areas of specialization include: Operational algorithm development for radiation budget experiments
Surface and atmosphere radiation budget
Remote sensing of cloud optical properties from satellites
Orbital sampling and mission analyses
Planning and scientific support for field experiments
Code development and validation
Achievements: Developed improved temporal averaging techniques for CERES
Performed orbital sampling and mission analyses for proposed CERES underflights
Designed and produced graphical tools for interactive cloud algorithm development and validation
Derived cloud climatological statistics in support of field experiments
Developed analysis programs for satellite data sets
Performed ERBE data validation studies
Developed global surface reflectance maps from vegetation data
Produced analytically-derived anisotropic models of shortwave and longwave radiation
Tested CERES Surface and Atmospheric Radiation Budget (SARB) algorithms
Developed algorithms for cloud detection in polar areas
Constructed climatologies of surface-detected contrails over the US
Provided field support for ARM Unmanned Aerospace Vehicle ( UAV) field programs
Provided field support for FIRE Arctic Cloud Experiment (ACE ) field program
Supported the Subsonic aircraft Contrail and Cloud Effects Special Study field program