PEOPLE

Dr. Ronald M. Welch, Co-Investigator

Professor and Chair, Department of Atmospheric Science, University of Alabama in Huntsville, Global Hydrology and Climate Center and the National Space Science and Technology Center, Huntsville, Alabama 35805

Education
B. A., Physics, California State University in Long Beach, 1965
M. A., Physics, California State University in Long Beach, 1967
Ph. D., Physics, University of Utah, 1971
Ph. D., Meteorology, University of Utah, 1976

Professional Employment History
From 1976-78 Dr. Welch was a Research Associate in the Department of Atmospheric Sciences, Colorado State University, and from 1978-81 he was a Research Associate in the Institute fur Meteorologie, Johannes Gutenberg Universitat in Mainz, Germany.  During 1981-82, he was an Associate Professor in the Department of Geophysical Sciences at Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Virginia.  In July 1982, Dr. Welch assumed the position of Head, Data Acquisition and Analysis Group, Institute ofAtmospheric Sciences, at South Dakota School of Mines and Technology (SDSMT) and Associate Professor in the Department of Meteorology.  In 1987, he was promoted to the position of Senior Scientist and in 1990 to the position of Professor.  During 1989-90, he was UCAR Visiting Scientist at he Naval Oceanographic and Atmospheric Research Laboratory in Monterey, California.  In 1992, he was appointed Director of the Center for Robotics, Artificial Intelligence and Remote Sensing at SDSMT.  In 1997, Dr. Welch assumed the position as Chair, Department of Atmospheric Science, at the University of Alabama in Huntsville.

Professional Organizations
Dr. Welch has held membership in the American Meteorological Society, American Geophysical Union, American Physical Society, American Association for the Advancement of Science, New York Academy of Sciences, and the Society of Sigma Xi.  He serves as a science team member on the ASTER and CERES as part of the NASA Earth Observing System (EOS) and the European SCARAB, IASI and POLDER science teams.  He has served on the EOSDIS Scientific Advisory Panel, as Co-Chair of the Langley DAAC Scientific Advisory Panel, the AMS Radiation Committee and the AMS Committee on Artificial Intelligence Applications to Environmental Science.

Current Research Activities
Dr. Welch has authored more than 80 peer-reviewed publications and a greater number of conference papers.  Research areas include: 1) remote sensing of aerosol and cloud properties 2) development of global satellite cloud masks, 3) Earth radiative budget studies and retrieval of surface fluxes 4) characterization of global ecosystems and land-use changes 5) 3-D radiative transfer modeling of cloud fields 6) remote sensing applications of infectious disease outbreaks. Related and Significant

Related and Significant Publications
Wielicki, B. A., and R. M. Welch, 1986:  Cumulus cloud field properties derived using Landsat digital data.  J. Climate Appl. Meteor., 25, 261-276.

Sengupta, S.K., R. M. Welch, M.S. Navar, T.A. Berendes and D.W.Chen, 1990: Cumulus cloud field morphology and spatial patterns derived from high spatial resolution LANDSAT imagery, J. Appl. Meteor. 29, 1245-1267.

Berendes, T., S. K. Sengupta, R. M. Welch, B. A. Wielicki and M. Navar, 1992:  Cumulus cloud base height estimation from high spatial resolution Landsat data:  A Hough transform approach. IEEE Trans. Geosci. And Remote Sensing, 30, No. 3, 430-443.

Kuo, K-S, R. Welch, R. Weger, M. Engelstad and S. Sengupta, 1993: the 3-D structure of cumulus clouds over the ocean. 1. Structural analysis. J. Geophys. Res 98, 20685-20711.

Han, Q., W. Rossow, R. Welch, A. White and J. Chou, 1995:  Validation of satellite retrievals of cloud microphysics and liquid water path using observations from FIRE, J. Atmos. Sci 52, 4183-4195.

Baum, B. A., V. Tovinkere, J. Titlow and R. M. Welch, 1997: Automated Global Cloud Classification of AVHRR Data Using a Fuzzy Logic Approach, J. Applied Meteorology, 36, 1519-1540.

Han, Q., W. B. Rossow, J. Chou and R. M. Welch, 1998: Global Survey of Cloud Effective Droplet Concentration of Low-level Clouds. JGR Letters, 25, 1419-1422.

Logar, A., D. Lloyd, E. Corwin, M. Penaloza, R. Feind, T. Berendes, K.-S. Kuo and R. M. Welch, 1998: The ASTER Polar Cloud Mask, IEEE Trans. Geosci. Remote Sensing 36, 1302-1312.

Christopher, S. A., M. Wang, T. A. Berendes, R. M. Welch and S-K. Yang, 1998: The 1985 biomass burning season in South America: Satellite remote sensing of fires, smoke and regional radiative energy budgets, J. Appl. Meteor., 37, 661-678.

Han, Q., W. B. Rossow, J. Chou, and R. M. Welch, 1998:  Global Survey of the Relationship between Cloud Droplet Size and Albedo using ISCCP J.Climate, 11, 1516-1528.

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.

Welch, R. M., R. O. Lawton and U. S. Nair, 1999: Land use and terrain impacts on cloud field development on the Caribbean slope of Costa Rica and Nicaragua, IAMAS Symposium MI06 of IUGG99, Birmingham, England, 18-30 July.

Christopher, S.A., X. Li, R. M. Welch, J. S. Reid, P. V. Hobbs, T. F. Eck and B. Holben, 2000: Estimation of surface and top-of-atmosphere shortwave irradiance in biomass-burning regions during SCAR-B, J. Appl. Meteor. 39, 1742-1753.

Nair, U.S., R. M. Welch, R. O. Lawton and R. A. Pielke, Sr., 2001: Impact of land surface on the spatial organization of cumulus clouds, American Meteor. Soc 81st Annual Meeting., Albuquerque, NM, 14-19 Jan.

Lawton, R.O., U. S. Nair, R. A. Pielke, Sr., and R. M. Welch, 2001: Climatic impact of tropical lowland deforestation on nearby montane cloud forests,  Science, 294, 19 Oct, 584-587.

Han, Q. Y., W. B. Rossow, J. Zeng, and R. M. Welch, 2002: Three different behaviors of liquid water path of water clouds in aerosol-cloud interactions.  J. Atmos. Sci., 59, 726-735.

Han, Q. Y., J. Zeng, X. Q. Dong, and R. M. Welch, 2003: Algorithm for Determining Boundaries of Low-Level Stratiform Clouds Using Rawinsonde Data.  [submitted to J. Geophys. Res.,]

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

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