This is a past event.

Environmental Engineering Graduate Seminar

Ankur R. Desai, Professor, Reid Bryson Professor of Climate, People, and Environment Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences, University of Wisconsin-Madison

Abstract: 
Ecosystems exchange heat, water, momentum, and trace gases with the atmosphere through a variety of biological and physical processes. Together these fluxes have broad impacts on the state of the lower atmosphere, and influence forecasting and projection of weather and climate. However, measuring and scaling observations of these fluxes from plots to regions bring about a number of challenges, including site selection bias and the energy imbalance problem of eddy covariance flux towers. The Chequamegon Heterogeneous Ecosystem Energy-balance Study Enabled by a High-density Extensive Array of Detectors (CHEESEHEAD19) study investigated aspects of these challenges. An array of 19 semi-randomly placed eddy covariance flux towers were coupled with a variety of atmospheric ground-based and airborne atmospheric profiling, land cover mapping, and ecological plots across a forested and wetland filled area of northern Wisconsin USA centered on the US-PFa 450 m tall Ameriflux tower. Initial results reveal surface heterogeneity induced mesoscale circulations as a leading cause of energy-balance biases in flux measurements. Further details are also found in a recent paper in Bulletin of the AMS by Butterworth et al., 2020.  


Bio:
Ankur Desai is the Reid Bryson Professor of Climate, People, and Environment in the Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences and the Nelson Institute Center for Climatic Research at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. His lab studies and has authored over 100 articles regarding ecosystems, weather, and climate. This work spans from Wisconsin to the globe and uses both long term observations in nature and advanced computer simulations. He received his Bachelor's degree in computer science and environmental studies from Oberlin College, a Master's in Geography from the University of Minnesota, and a PhD in Meteorology from The Pennsylvania State University. Ankur is also an American Meteorological Society Certified Consulting Meteorologist. Since 2007, he has lived in Madison with his wife and three daughters.