In this Award from the NSF Science, Engineering and Education for Sustainability Fellows (SEES Fellows Program), Dr. Meredith Kupinski from the University of Arizona will develop new methods for estimating aerosol properties (e.g. optical depth, particle shape/distribution, and refractive index) over land from satellite images of Earth by integrating polarimetric, spectral and angular measurements. This award is supported by the Directorate for Computer & Information Science and Engineering and the Directorate for Geosciences.
The proposed work will (1) statistically characterize the sample covariance of parameterized models for polarized reflectance from the Earth's surface; (2) Develop a new estimation scheme for decorrelating surface reflectance from top of the atmosphere (TOA) polarimetric images; (3) quantitiatively evaluate the performance of the scanning-linear (SL) estimator of the Multiangle SpectroPolarimetric Imager (MSPI) images; and (4) enhance the scientific workforce dedicated to sustainability issues.
The aim of studies like that proposed in this work is to develop better methods for the accurate measurement of atmospheric aerosols with the aim to develop better atmospheric models.
Dr. Kupinski will be working with collaborators Prof. Russell Chipman of the College of Optical Sciences, Prof. Ara Arabyn, Department of Aerospace & Mechanical Engineering, and Prof. Leslie Tolbert, Sr. VP for Research, all at the University of Arizona; as well as Dr. David Diner at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology. Dr. Kupinski will engage in significant education and outreach activities, including the donation of and instruction in use of a Classroom Nephelometer to Native-American-serving schools for their use in student research.
This project is supported under the NSF Science, Engineering and Education for Sustainability Fellows (SEES Fellows) program, with the goal of helping to enable discoveries needed to inform actions that lead to environmental, energy and societal sustainability while creating the necessary workforce to address these challenges. With SEES Fellows support, this project will enable a promising early career researcher to establish themselves in an independent research career related to sustainability.
