Emily Rosenthal came to us from Herndon, Virginia. She is a senior at Millersville University of Pennsylvania with a major in Meteorology. Emily writes, "This summer I worked with Professor Christopher O'Dell and graduate student Robert Nelson to evaluate the level of agreement in terms of both cloud and aerosol properties between CALIPSO and OCO-2, two satellites in NASA's A-train. CALIPSO measures the vertical distribution of clouds and aerosols. OCO-2 measures carbon dioxide, but can obtain high accuracy only in clear scenes. "In this study, we found that for high optical depth CALIPSO measurements, OCO-2 identified most (~70%) of scenes as cloudy. The opposite was also true: for low optical depth CALIPSO measurements, OCO-2 identified most of the scenes as clear. Understanding this helps determine differences between OCO-2 and CALIPSO, and identifies the types of cloud and aerosol layers OCO-2 has trouble detecting." Emily's summer research poster is here, A Comparison of Cloud and Aerosol Measurements from OCO-2 and CALIPSO. Her research interests at school include satellite meteorology, severe storms, and climate change. When not at school, Emily enjoys spectator sports, volleyball, outdoor activities, and travel. |