Contact Information
1301 W. Green St.
Urbana, IL 61801
Biography
I am a fourth-year Ph.D. student in Atmospheric Sciences working within the Hence Mesoscale Group under Dr. Deanna Hence. My current area of research involves the interactions between tropical cyclones and Madden-Julian Oscillation (MJO) convection in the Indian Ocean using remote sensing instrumentation and high-resolution modeling. I previously studied deep convection during an MJO event observed by the DYNAMO field campaign in the tropical Indian Ocean.
Before attending the University of Illinois for graduate school, I completed a B.S. in Atmospheric Sciences from the University of Washington. I participated in research every summer for the last three years of my undergraduate career, including comparing entrainment and related thermodynamic metrics between different microphysical schemes used in simulating a tropical squall line.
Research Interests
Tropical convection, Madden-Julian Oscillation (MJO), tropical cyclones, radar remote sensing, high-resolution numerical modeling (WRF, MPAS)
Education
Ph.D. Atmospheric Sciences, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2018 - Present
M.S. Atmospheric Sciences, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2017
B.S. Atmospheric Sciences, University of Washington, 2015
Grants
NASA Earth Science FINESST, 2019 - Present
Awards and Honors
2021 - Poster Judging Committee Co-chair, 34th Conference on Hurricanes and Tropical Meteorology
2018 - Outstanding Student Poster Award, 33rd Conference on Hurricanes and Tropical Meteorology
2016-17 - Conference Co-chair, 1st Midwest Student Conference on Atmospheric Research (MSCAR)
2016-17 - Department of Atmospheric Sciences Student Organization (DASSO) Secretary
2015-16, 18 - Excellent Graduate Teaching Assistant
Courses Taught
ATMS 100 - Introduction to Meteorology
ATMS 120 - Severe and Hazardous Weather
ATMS 201 - General Physical Meteorology
Highlighted Publications
Thayer, Jeffrey D., D.A. Hence, P. Garg, and S.W. Nesbitt, 2021: Tropical Cyclone Interactions with Madden-Julian Oscillation in the Indian Ocean using a High-Resolution WRF Simulation. J. Geophys. Res.-Atmos., in preparation.
Thayer, Jeffrey D. and D.A. Hence, 2021: Transition of Large-scale Environmental Conditions and Characteristics of Four Rainfall Types observed by S-PolKa during the MJO-1 Active Phase of DYNAMO/CINDY/AMIE. J. Geophys. Res.-Atmos., submitted.
Recent Publications
Garg, P., Nesbitt, S.W., Lang, T.J., Priftis, G., Chronis, T., Thayer, J.D., Hence, D.A., 2021: Identifying and Characterizing Tropical Oceanic Mesoscale Cold Pools using Spaceborne Scatterometer Winds. J. Geophys. Res. Atmos., 125, e2019JD031812.
Recent Presentations:
Thayer, Jeffrey D., D.A. Hence, P. Garg, and S.W. Nesbitt, 2021: Tropical Cyclone Interactions with Madden-Julian Oscillation in the Indian Ocean using a High-Resolution WRF Simulation. 34th Conference on Hurricanes and Tropical Meteorology, Virtual Meeting.
Thayer, Jeffrey D. and D.A. Hence, 2020: Tropical Cyclone Interactions with the Madden-Julian Oscillation in the Indian Ocean. American Meteorological Society, 100th Annual Meeting, Boston, MA.