Tamas Varnai
Research Associate Professor
| Phone |
301-614-6408
|
|---|---|
| varnai@umbc.edu | |
| Education |
Ph D, McGill University (1996)
Other, Eotvos Lorand University (1989)
|
About
Prior to joining UMBC in 1999, Dr. Varnai worked as researcher at the Hungarian Meteorological Service, and as postdoctoral fellow at McGill University and at the University of Arizona.
Research Interests
Dr. Varnai’s research aims at improving our ability to measure the properties of clouds and atmospheric aerosols from space, and to use satellite data for better understanding the impact of clouds and aerosols on the solar heating of our planet. He is particularly interested in the way the three-dimensional nature of atmospheric radiative processes affects satellite observations, and in understanding the way atmospheric particle populations change in the vicinity of clouds. His work involves analyzing data from satellite instruments such as MODIS or CALIOP and airborne instruments such as THOR or CAR, and combining the data with theoretical simulations of radiative processes.
Selected Classes
| Spring 2020 | PHYS 640/440 – Computational Physics |
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Contracts, Fellowships, Grants, and Sponsored Research
MODIS and VIIRS aerosol properties in partly cloudy regions Grant (Funded) Sponsored by NASA
Use of CALIOP data for understanding cloud-related variations in aerosol properties and aerosol radiative effects Grant (Funded) Sponsored by NASA
Intellectual Contributions
(2020) Deep space observations of sun glints from marine ice clouds IEEE Geosci. Rem. Sens. Lett.
(2019) Developing an aircraft-based angular distribution model of solar reflection from wildfire smoke to aid satellite-based radiative flux estimation Remote Sensing
(2018) MISR radiance anomalies induced by stratospheric volcanic aerosols Remote Sensing
(2018) Satellite observations of cloud-related variations in aerosol properties Atmosphere
(2018) Scale dependence of cirrus heterogeneity effects. Part II: MODIS NIR and SWIR channels Atmos. Chem. Phys.
(2018) EPIC spectral observations of variability in Earth's global reflectance Remote Sensing
(2017) Observation-based study on aerosol optical depth and particle size in partly cloudy regions J. Geophys. Res.
(2017) Scale dependence of cirrus heterogeneity effects. Part I: MODIS thermal infrared channels Atmos. Chem. Phys.
(2017) Terrestrial glint seen from deep space: oriented ice crystals detected from the Lagrangian point Geophys. Res. Lett.
(2016) Testing the two-layer model for correcting near cloud reflectance enhancement using LES/SHDOM simulated radiances Journal of Geophysical Research
(2016) Radiative characteristics of clouds embedded in smoke derived from airborne multiangular measurements J. Geophys. Res.
(2015) Effect of cloud fraction on near-cloud aerosol behavior in the MODIS atmospheric correction ocean color product Remote Sensing
(2014) CALIPSO observations of near-cloud aerosol properties as a function of cloud fraction Geophys. Res. Lett.
(2014) Extending 3D near-cloud corrections from shorter to longer wavelengths J. Quant. Spect. Radiative Transfer
(2014) Near-cloud aerosol properties from the 1-km resolution MODIS ocean product Journal of Geophysical Research
(2013) Improvement of MODIS aerosol retrievals near clouds Journal of Geophysical Research
(2013) Shape-induced gravitational sorting of Saharan dust during transatlantic voyage: Evidence from CALIOP lidar depolarization measurements Geophysical Research Letters
(2013) Multi-satellite aerosol observations in the vicinity of clouds Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics
(2012) CALIPSO observations of transatlantic dust: vertical stratification and effect of clouds Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics
(2012) Cloud droplet size retrievals from zenith radiance measurements: examples from the Atmospheric Radiation Measurement Program and the Aerosol Robotic Network Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics
(2012) Effect of CALIPSO cloud aerosol discrimination (CAD) confidence levels on observations of aerosol properties near clouds Atmospheric Research
(2012) Taking the pulse of pyrocumulus clouds Atmospheric Environment
(2012) Analysis of co-located MODIS and CALIPSO observations near clouds Atmospheric Measurement Techniques
(2012) A variational method to retrieve the extinction profile in liquid clouds using multiple field-of-view lidar Journal of applied meteorology and climatology
(2011) Cloud Impact on Surface Altimetry From a Spaceborne 532-nm Micropulse Photon-Counting Lidar: System Modeling for Cloudy and Clear Atmospheres IEEE Trans. Geosci. Rem. Sens.
(2011) Implementation on Landsat data of a simple cloud mask algorithm developed for MODIS land bands IEEE Geosc. & Rem. Sens. Lett.
(2011) Global CALIPSO observations of aerosol changes near clouds IEEE Geosci. Remote Sens. Lett.