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 CV)

 

 

 


Rob Kursinski

Last modified: Fri Oct 6, 2006