AOSC Seminar by Dr. Zhibo Zhang, 11/14/2024
AOSC Seminar
Zhibo Zhang
UMBC
Title
Using both shortwave and longwave remote sensing techniques to understand the properties and radiative effects of dust aerosols
Abstract
Mineral dust is one of the most abundant types of aerosols in the atmosphere. It is recognized as an integral component of the Earth system that influences weather and climate via a suite of complex interactions with the energy, water, and carbon cycles. Dust storms cause detrimental losses of human life and economic activities through degrading air quality, spreading diseases, disrupting transportation, and reducing efficiency of solar power generation. Dust aerosols play a significant role in Earth’s radiative budget through their radiative effects in both solar shortwave (SW) and thermal infrared (TIR) longwave (LW) spectral regions. At present and in the near future, satellite remote sensing is the only means to monitor dust-related weather activities and infer dust aerosol properties quantitatively on a regional to global scale.
In this presentation, I will first provide a brief overview of the remote sensing techniques to retrieve the microphysical and optical properties of aerosols, from passive radiometric (i.e., MODIS-like) and polarimetric (i.e., POLDER-like) based techniques to active lidars (i.e., CALIOP-like). Then I will introduce the recent advances in thermal infrared (TIR) based dust remote sensing techniques, including a novel method to retrieve dust optical depth and particle size using the combination of TIR and lidar observations. Finally, I will discuss the gap between the SW (UV to NIR) and LW based dust remote sensing techniques and how the combination both SW and LW observation may help us better constrain dust properties, in particular the dust particle size and LW dust DRE.
Bio
Dr. Zhibo Zhang is currently a full professor in the Physics Department of University of Maryland Baltimore County (UMBC). He is led of the Aerosol, Cloud, Radiation-Observation, and Simulation (ACROS https://acros.umbc.edu/) group that focuses on observing, understanding, and describing the interactions between aerosol, cloud, and radiation, and studying the implications of their interactions for global warming, climate change, air quality, and weather. Dr. Zhang is also the Associate Director of Goddard Earth Sciences Technology and Research (GESTAR) II, a research center under the corporative agreement between NASA and UMBC.
Dr. Zhang obtained his Ph.D. degree from Texas A&M University in 2008. He worked as a research scientist in Goddard Space Flight Center between 2008 and 2011, before he joined the Physics Department of UMBC as a tenure-track faculty. Dr. Zhang won several prestigious awards including the young scientist award of the International Radiation Commission. He is serving the Associate Editor for Remote Sensing of Environment. Dr. Zhang has published over 80 journal papers, book chapters and conference proceedings that have been cited over 5000 times.
Contact
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AOSC Seminar
Pre-seminar refreshment: N/A
Seminar: 3:30-4:30pm, Room: ATL 2400(only when in-person)
Meet-the-Speaker: 4:30-5:00pm, Room: ATL 3400(only when in-person) [For AOSC Students only]
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