Read NASA News Release on Prof. Luo's research: NASA Data May Help Improve Estimates of a Hurricane's Punch

My research interest is satellite remote sensing and cloud process studies in the context of climate and climate change. In particular, I investigate tropical convection and upper-tropospheric humidity (UTH) through analyzing satellite data, aircraft measurements and model simulations. Recently, I also become interested in hurricane and have been actively seeking satellite application of Emanuel's hurricane intensity theory.

My interest in clouds (and water vapor) started when I conducted my graduate research at Columbia University and NASA/GISS in connection with the ISCCP . This interest grew stronger with my recent participation in NASA's CloudSat mission and European Union's MOZAIC project. Questions I strive to understand are: 1) How will NASA A-Train type synergy help add new insights into convective processes (e.g., buoyancy, entrainment, etc.) and help define future missions (e.g., ACE)? 2) How will new space-borne technologies help hurricane intensity estimation? 3) How can we better understand UTH variations by bringing together aircraft and satellite measurements?

EAS 488/B8800 Climate & Climate Change (syllabus)
EAS 417: Satellite Meteorology
EAS B9014: Fundamentals of Atmospehric Science
EAS 308: ESS: Modeling & Database (co-teach with Profs. Winslow and Block)

Atmospheric Science is an evolving field. A common misunderstanding among quite a number of students is that it's a descriptive discipline. This might have been the case 50 years ago, but not any more. Our primary tool now is math, statistics and physics plus computer programming, so quantitative skills are the key thing we look for and teach.