My primary area of research is examining the effects of surface heterogeneity on land atmosphere interactions. I use remote sensing to quantify variability of surface vegetation and radiometric temperature fields which can be coupled to Soil-Vegetation-Atmosphere-Transfer (SVAT) models to generate spatially distributed estimates of surface energy fluxes.
Another major focus currently is the use of a Large Aperture Scintillometer to measure sensible heat fluxes over longer path lengths. This allows comparison with eddy covariance stations and satellite derived estimates of surface energy fluxes.
Current applications include:
Determining the relative importance of physical processes controlling the rates of carbon and water cycling as a function of land cover change. This in turn, allows for identifying regions where anthropogenic land cover change may have the most profound effects on altering local climates.
Attempting to ascertain the climatic signals associated with Ebola outbreaks.
Here is a figure showing the temporal entropy derived from NEXRAD precipitation for the Missouri Basin.
Here is a graph illustrating the comparison between the scintillometer and eddy covariance fluxes out at the Rannell's Flint Hills Prairie Reserve.
