Profile:

I was born and raised in Colombia, where I obtained my bachelors degree in Electronics Engineering in 2012. After this, I decided to move to the U.S. and pursue a graduate degree. As a graduate student at the City College of New York, I have focused on specialization in the areas of Photonics and Remote Sensing in my course work. During Spring 2013, I joined the Optical Remote Sensing Laboratory (ORSL) under the supervision of Professor Fred Moshary. My work in the lab builds on earlier research on developing a Quantum Cascade Laser open path system for ambient greenhouse gas monitoring and Lidar measurements of particulate pollution in New York City. 

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NERTO Research Project Title:

Application and Analysis of Wind Doppler Lidar Observations

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NERTO Project Details :

The FIREX-AQ field campaign, led by NOAA and NASA, aims to investigate the impact on air quality and climate from wildfires and agricultural fires in the United States by looking at the chemistry and transport of smoke. Atmospheric Remote Sensing group at NOAA Earth Systems Research Laboratory – Chemical Sciences Division developed a micro-pulsed coherent Doppler lidar system that will be deployed on a Twin Otter aircraft with the goal of profiling wind dynamics of large forest-burning wildfires.This research will be validating airborne wind lidar measurements by comparing wind lidar measurements from a custom-made scanning micro Doppler lidar system deployed on a Twin Otter aircraft to those from different commercial wind lidar systems deployed at three different locations on the ground. This reseach will test if vertical wind variability is the main cause of error on the horizontal wind measurement retrievals. 

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NERTO Outcomes:

I became familiarized with the processing of aircraft data and all the factors that come into play in such measurements. As a result, we have been able to better asses the quality and reliability of these measurements.

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Value of NERTO to the Line Office:

Intern worked on validating airborne wind lidar measurements by comparing wind lidar measurements from a custom-made scanning micro Doppler lidar system deployed on a Twin Otter aircraft to those from different commercial wind lidar systems deployed at three different locations on the ground. Intern also investigated if vertical wind variability is the main cause of error on the horizontal wind measurement retrievals. Moreover, intern tested different integration distances in order to find the optimal amount of averaging required to obtain the most representative results. All the different analysis mentioned above will serve as support for measurements taken as part of the FIREX-AQ field campaign.

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NERTO Skills:

I became familiar with the techniques used to process wind lidar measurements in order to obtain retrievals of vertical wind speed, and horizontal wind speed and direction.