E.
Robert Kursinski
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Dr.
Kursinski
joined the Department
of Atmospheric Sciences at the University
of Arizona
as an associate professor in August of 2000 after many years at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. He also became a joint faculty member
in the Planetary
Science Department/ Lunar and Planetary Laboratory in 2002. Email: kursinski@atmo.arizona.edu Research Interests (see Research Projects)
My research
focuses on atmospheric remote sensing, particularly tied the hydrological
cycle and climate and climate change.
I have been working to refine the basic climatology of water vapor
primarily using both ground-based and orbiting GPS receivers. The goal is to understand how water
vapor concentrations are controlled how they will change in a changing
climate and the connection between water vapor and moist convection, clouds
and precipitation. My research
has been both global and more recently focused on the North American monsoon
(NAM). Much of my
research including my PhD thesis involves atmospheric remote sensing using
the Global Positioning System (GPS). I have spent a great deal of effort
understanding the accuracy, resolution and overall information content of the
GPS observations and how they can be combined with other observations. I am interested
in data assimilation which combines model with observations to produce a
statistically optimal estimate of the state of the atmosphere (and other
geophysical systems). I have
been working with others on methods to assimilation radio occultation data
and extract as much information as possible from the data in constraining
weather forecasts and climate analyses.
I hope to do data assimilation studies of moist convection in the NAM
area using our GPS and surface observations combined with rain gauge,
lightning and satellite data and the high resolution WRF model to better
understand warm season precipitation and convection and ultimately their parameterization
in climate models. I have been
working towards a climate observing system as independent as possible from
models and assumptions that is capable of defining present climatology
(particularly the hydrological cycle), monitoring trends and uniquely
determining the key processes at work. This is in contrast to most present and
planned satellite observing systems which are largely been driven by weather
forecasting needs (as opposed to climate) or focused on individual scientific
goals such as the NASA Earth System Science Pathfinder (ESSP) missions. In this regard, I have been working
on a next generation satellite-to-satellite occultation system operating from
10 GHz to more than 200 GHz for both Earth and Mars which will allow very
precise measurements of water vapor, temperature, and pressure and other
constituents and isotopes as well as winds in clear and cloudy conditions. While most of my
time is focused on Earth, I am also quite interested in the hydrological
cycle on Mars and the methane cycle and moist
convection on Titan. While fascinating in their own right, these two terrestrial
systems also provide excellent comparative
laboratories to test and assess how deeply we understand moist processes and
dynamics on Earth. Education:
* 1997 Ph.D., Planetary
Sciences (Minor: Geophysics), California Institute of Technology * 1991 M.S., Electrical
Engineering, University of Southern California * 1978 B. A., Physics and
Music Theory, Haverford College Positions:
* 2002 – present
Associate Professor, Planetary Sciences, University of Arizona (Joint
Appointment) * 2000 – present
Associate Professor, Atmospheric Sciences, University of Arizona * 1980-2000 Research
Scientist, System engineer, project manager, Jet Propulsion Laboratory (see
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Last modified: Fri Oct 6, 2006