PEOPLE

Dr. Udaysankar S. Nair, Principal Investigator

Senior Research Associate, Earth System Science Center, The University of Alabama in Huntsville, National Space Science and Technology Center, 320 Sparkman Drive, Huntsville, Alabama 35805

Dr. Udaysankar S. Nair received his Ph. D. in Atmospheric Science from Colorado State University in 2002. He obtained his Master’s degree in Meteorology from South Dakota School of Mines and Technology in 1991 and B. Tech in Mechanical Engineering from University of Kerala in 1988.  Dr. Nair has been working as a Senior Research Associate at Earth Science System Center, National Space Science Technology Center, University of Alabama in Huntsville since 2001.  Dr. Nair has considerable experience in mesoscale numerical modeling and satellite data analysis and has participated in field experiments such as The Kwajalein Experiment (KWAJEX), International H2O Project (IHOP) and Land Use Cloud Interaction Experiment (LUCIE).  Dr. Nair’s research interests include mesoscale modeling, atmosphere-biosphere interaction, influence of land use on regional climate, climatology of severe storm environments, detection of clouds in satellite imagery and remote sensing of soil moisture and surface energy budget.  Dr. Nair has authored publications in the areas of numerical modeling of flash flood, land use climate interactions studies using both satellite data analysis and numerical modeling, retrievals of surface energy fluxes from satellite data and analysis of cumulus cloud formation and organization.  Dr. Nair received outstanding student paper award from American Geophysical Union in 2001. An article based on Dr. Nair’s  Ph. D. dissertation work was published in the October 2001 issue of the Science and was selected as one of the ten most important science papers of year 2001 in the areas of Earth Science, Environment and Ecology by Science News.

Related and Significant Publications:

R. A. Pielke, L. R. Bernardet, P. J. Fitzpatrick, R. F. Hertenstein, A. S. Jones, X. Lin, J. E. Nachamkin, U. S. Nair, J. M. Papineau, G. S. Poulos, M. H. Savoie and P. L. Vidale, 1995: Standardized test to evaluate numerical weather prediction algorithms. Bull. Amer. Meteor.  Soc., 76, 46-48.

Kenner, S. J., S. Birch, Y. Yang, M. R. Hjelmfelt, U. S. Nair and R. A. Pielke Sr., 1996: Atmospheric and surface hydrologic simulation of an extreme flood event. Proc. Second International Conf. on the Global Energy and Water Cycle, 17-21 June 1996, Washington DC., GEWEX, 17-18

Nair U. S., M. R. Hjelmfelt and R. A. Pielke Sr., 1997: Numerical simulation of the 9-10 June 1972 Black Hills Storm using CSU RAMS. Mon. Wea. Rev., 125, 1753-1766.

Nair U. S., R. Weger, K.-S. Kuo and R. M. Welch, 1998: Clustering, randomness and regularity in cloud fields. 5: The nature of regular cumulus cloud fields. J. Geophys. Res., 103, 11,363 - 11380.

Nair, U. S., J. A. Rushing, R. Ramachandran, K. S. Kuo, R. M. Welch and S. J. Graves, 1999: Detection of cumulus cloud fields in satellite imagery. Earth Observing Systems IV, William L. Barnes, Editor, Proceedings of SPIE Vol. 3750, 345-355.

Nair, U. S., R. M. Welch, R. O. Lawton and R. A. Pielke Sr., 2000: Influence of surface characteristics on the development of cumulus cloud fields. Preprints, 15th Conference on Hydrology, 9-14 January 2000, Long Beach, CA. Amer. Meteor. Soc., 84-86.

Nair, U. S., R. M. Welch, R. O. Lawton and R. A. Pielke Sr., 2000: Impact of land use on Costa Rican regional climate. Proc. IEEE IGARSS 2000, V, 1993-1995.

Lawton, R. O., U. S. Nair, R. A. Pielke, R. M. Welch, 2001: Climatic impact of tropical lowland deforestation on nearby montane cloud forests. Science, 294, 584-587.

Nair, U. S., R. M. Welch, R. O. Lawton and R. A. Pielke Sr., 2001: Impact of land surface heterogeneity on the spatial organization of cumulus clouds. Proc. 12th Symposium on global change and climate variations, 14-18 January 2001, Albuquerque, NM, Amer. Meteor. Soc., 102-104.

Ray D. K., U. S. Nair, R. M. Welch, W. Su, 2001: Influence of land use change on cumulus cloud formation and surface energy fluxes in Southwest Australia. 2001 Spring meeting, Biogeosciences section, B52A-06, Boston, MA, 29 May – 2 June, Amer. Geophys. Union.

Ray D. K., U. S. Nair, R. M. Welch., T. A. Berendes, 2001: Satellite remote sensing of surface moisture over south west Australia. 2001 Spring meeting, First Science Results from the ASTER Instrument, Onboard the Terra Spacecraft, U31A-12, Boston, MA, 29 May – 2 June, Amer. Geophys. Union.

Nair, U. S., R. M. Welch, T. L. Sever, D. Irwin and R. A. Pielke Sr., 2002: Numerical study into climatic impact of deforestation associated with the fall of Mayan empire. 2002 Spring meeting, Biogeosciences section, B41A-12, Washington, DC, May 28 - 31June 3, Amer. Geophys. Union.

Welch, R M, U. S. Nair, D. K. Ray, A. Sanchez, M. Perez, 2002: Impact of land use on cloud properties over the Haiti/Dominican Republic, 2002 Fall meeting, Biogeosciences section, B21B-0725, San Francisco, CA, 6-10 December, Amer. Geophys. Union.

Ray, D. K., U. S. Nair, R. M. Welch, R. O. Lawton, 2002: Impact of Deforestation on Cloud Properties and Rainfall Over the Costa Rica-Nicaraguan region, Biogeosciences section, B21B-0724, San Francisco, CA, 6-10 December, Amer. Geophys. Union.

Nair U. S., R. O. Lawton, R. M. Welch, R. A. Pielke.Sr., 2003: Impact of land use on tropical montane cloud forests: 1. Sensitivity of cumulus cloud field characteristics to lowland deforestation., Accepted for publication in J. Geophys. Res.

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