You are invited to attend Zhendong Lu’s final exam on Wednesday, September 2, at 9:00am.

Advisor: Jun Wang

Location: SC1078. Please contact Zhendong, zhendong-lu@uiowa.edu, if you plan to attend.

Title: Passive Satellite Remote Sensing of Aerosol Vertical Distribution: Algorithm Development and Applications

Abstract: Atmospheric aerosols, tiny airborne particles like wildfire smoke and desert dust, profoundly impact global climate, local air quality and ecosystems. Understanding how high these particles float in the atmosphere is critical, yet tracking their vertical height globally remains a major challenge.

This dissertation unlocks the power of passive satellite measurements to track the layer heights and vertical profiles of these particles from space. First, using a unique National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) satellite stationed at the Sun-Earth Lagrange-1 point, we characterized how wildfire smoke over North America and dust over the Atlantic Ocean rise and fall hour by hour throughout the day. Next, by combining 15 years of spaceborne lidar observations with statistical techniques, we developed a novel framework that enables passive satellite sensors to reveal detailed, multi-layered profiles of smoke and dust instead of just a single representative height. Finally, we demonstrated the potential of integrating these satellite-derived aerosol vertical distributions with atmospheric models, providing a foundation for future aerosol data assimilation applications.

Together, these advances provide new capabilities for observing the three-dimensional structure of atmospheric aerosols from space. The resulting datasets and methodologies support a broad range of applications, including air quality management, climate and radiative forcing studies, and assessments of environmental and ecosystem impacts, while advancing our understanding of the three-dimensional distribution, transport, and evolution of atmospheric aerosols on regional and global scales.