[Eoas-seminar] Meteorology MS Defense for Mengtao Yin, Thursday, March 7, 2019, 3:30 PM, LOV353

[eoas-seminar at lists.fsu.edu]

Meteorology Seminar



Mengtao Yin

PhD Meteorology Candidate



Title:  Understanding Microphysics of Snowflakes and Snow Precipitation Process Using Spaceborne Microwave Measurements

Major Professor:  Dr. Guosheng Liu


Date: March 07, 2019                 Time: 3:30 to 6:00 PM



Location: Werner A. Baum Seminar Room (353 Love Building)
(Please join us for refreshments served outside room 353 Love @ 3:00 PM)



ABSTRACT

Snow, another precipitation form besides rain, affects the Earth's climate distinctly by modifying hydrological and radiative processes. The radiative properties of nonspherical snowflakes are much more complicated than their spherical counterparts, raindrops. Snowflakes with different structures tend to have different scattering properties. Thus, it is important for us to increase the knowledge in falling snow. However, only a few sensors have been available so far that can provide global snowfall measurements including those onboard he Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) core observatory and the CloudSat satellites. The GPM satellite carries two important instruments for studying snow precipitations, i.e., the Dual-frequency Precipitation Radar (DPR) and the GPM Microwave Imager (GMI). By combining the GPM instruments with another active sensor onboard the CloudSat satellite, the Cloud Profiling Radar (CPR), an unprecedented opportunity arises for understanding the microphysics of snowflakes and the physical processes of snow precipitation. Seizing this opportunity, in this study, we firstly investigate the microphysical properties of snow particles by analyzing their backscattered signatures at different frequencies. Then, the accuracy of simulating passive microwave brightness temperatures at high frequencies is examined under snowfall conditions using the CPR derived snow water content profiles as radiative transfer model inputs. Lastly, a passive microwave snowfall retrieval method is developed in which the a priori database is optimized by tuning snow water content profiles to be consistent with the GMI observations.
This research explores the application of spaceborne microwave measurements to snowfall studies by combining CloudSat and GPM instruments. It provides new knowledge on snowflake microphysics and applicable methods in retrieving three-dimensional snow water distribution from passive high frequency microwave measurements.

Please see attachment for full abstract.


Shel McGuire
Florida State University
Academic Program Specialist
Department of Earth, Ocean, & Atmospheric Science
1017 Academic Way, 410 Love Building (Meteorology)
Tallahassee, FL 32306
850-644-8582

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