Highlights will be written for high-level accomplishments and published journal articles of ASR research. Each ASR principal investigator (PI) is expected to submit at least one highlight per fiscal year.
Research Highlights
Recent Highlights
Deep learning of PBL heights using ARM SGP data
13 November 2024
Zhang, Yunyan; Su, Tianning
Supported by:
Research area: Atmospheric Thermodynamics and Vertical Structures
This study developed an advanced deep learning model to estimate the planetary boundary-layer height (PBLH) by using morning sounding data and surface meteorological conditions. By training data from Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) user facility observations, our model examines the influence of various meteorological factors on PBLH and demonstrates effectiveness across [...]
Characterizing giant storm precipitation in the central Amazon
6 November 2024
Fast, Jerome D
Supported by:
Research area: Cloud Processes
The prediction of rainfall over the Amazon rainforest by weather and climate models is highly uncertain, particularly for large rainstorms, which are commonly seen during the wet season, from March to May. Using an advanced object tracking algorithm, researchers tracked storms that were observed by satellite and then simulated them [...]
Agricultural soils are efficient ice nucleating particles in the Southern Great Plains
30 October 2024
Burrows, Susannah M.
Supported by:
Research area: Cloud Processes
Ice nucleating particles (INPs) are a rare subset of particles that can have an outsized impact on weather and clouds by initiating the process of ice formation in clouds. Cloud ice plays an important role in the formation of precipitation as well as in changing the amount of sunlight clouds [...]
Light absorption by black carbon in wildfire-driven storms
7 October 2024
Fast, Jerome D
Supported by:
Research area: Aerosol Processes
Pyrocumulonimbus (pyroCb) clouds form from wildfire-driven convection. PyroCb clouds contain large amounts of black carbon (BC) mixed with water and organics. BC particles have a large effect on our climate because they can absorb sunlight, but BC absorption depends on how it is mixed with other materials. Previously, the extent [...]
Modeling the glaciation of mixed-phase clouds in the laboratory
2 October 2024
Ovchinnikov, Mikhail; Wang, Aaron
Supported by:
Research area: Cloud Processes
Clouds are one of the most uncertain components in numerical weather prediction and climate models. Mixed-phase clouds (those containing both supercooled liquid water and ice) can be especially challenging to represent. Theory predicts that when ice and liquid coexist in a cloud, ice crystals will grow while liquid droplets evaporate. [...]