Jesse Loveridge

I joined Prof. Larry Di Girolamo's research group in 2018 to work on atmospheric remote sensing problems. 

I first gained an interest in Atmospheric Science while completing my B.Sc in Physics in my home country of New Zealand. With the support of Prof. Roger Davies I contributed to New Zealand's "Deep South" National Science Challenge, which examines the influence of changes in the Southern Ocean and Antarctica on New Zealand's climate and citizens. My part was to help evaluate the New Zealand climate model with cloud properties retrieved from satellite observations. This was a project in which I encountered a lot of the complexity of atmospheric science and inverse problems, motivating me to work on developing improved satellite retrievals here at UIUC. I still maintain a strong interest in the statistical complexities of forming climatologies from satellite observations.

Since arriving at UIUC, I received the NASA FINESST award which supports my PhD research. My research applies tomographic techniques, developed largely for medical imaging, to cloud remote sensing problems, building on the work of Aviad Levis. The tomography algorithm uses observations of reflected solar radiation by multi-angle imagers in combination with a 3D radiative transfer model to retrieve the 3D variations of cloud microphysical properties. This retrieval method overcomes the limitations of state-of-the-art retrievals of cloud properties that use 1D radiative transfer models. The codebase for this retrieval is publicly available and is planned for application to the existing AirMSPI and MISR instruments and also to inform the design of the next generation of multi-angle instruments. The resulting measurements will inform us about the biases in the climatologies of cloud properties that are currently available. This will help us to understand the interactions of clouds with radiation, atmospheric dynamics and the hydrological cycle that are at the centre of uncertainty in projections of climate.

I have also been able to participate in NASA's Clouds, Aerosols, Monsoon Processes-Philippines Experiment (CAMP²Ex) field campaign by providing supporting analysis of satellite data during the field deployment.