Udaysankar Nair, Ph.D.

Professor, Atmospheric and Earth Science

Contact

320 Sparkman Drive
National Space Science & Technology Center
Room 3052
Huntsville, AL 35899
Campus Map

256.961.7841
nair@nsstc.uah.edu

Biography

Curriculum Vitae

Education

  • Ph. D. in Atmospheric Science, 2002: Colorado State University, Dissertation: Climatic impact of lowland deforestation on tropical montane cloud forests in Costa Rica
  • M. S. in Meteorology, 1991, South Dakota School of Mines and Technology, Thesis: Modeling and observational study of the 28 June 1989 case from the North Dakota Thunderstorm project.
  • B. Tech in Mechanical Engineering, 1988, University of Kerala, Trivandrum, India

Honors & Awards

  • Received outstanding student paper award from American Geophysical Union in 2000.
  • Article based on Ph. D. dissertation work, published in the October 2001 issue of Science, was selected as one of the ten most important science papers of year 2001 in the areas of Earth Science, Environment and Ecology by Science News.
  • NASA Group Achievement Award, 2004: Short Term Prediction Research and Transition Team Activity.
  • NASA New Investigator Award, 2006.
  • Google Earth Engine Faculty Research Award, 2013
  • NSF CAREER Award, 2014

Recent Publications

  • Jeffrey Miller, Udaysankar Nair, Rahul Ramachandran, Manil Maskey, Detection of transverse cirrus bands in satellite imagery using deep learning, Computers & Geosciences, Volume 118, 2018.

  • Freitag, B. M., Nair, U. S., & Niyogi, D. (2018). Urban modification of convection and rainfall in complex terrain, Geophysical Research Letters, 45, 2507–2515. https://doi.org/10.1002/2017GL076834.

  • Kaulfus, A. S., U. S. Nair, D. Jaffe, S. A. Christopher and S. Goodrick (2017), Biomass Burning Smoke Climatology of the United States: Implications for Particulate Matter Air Quality, Environmental Science & Technology, 2017 51 (20), 11731-11741, DOI: 10.1021/acs.est.7b03292.

  • Gong, X., A. Kaulfus, U. S. Nair, D. A. Jaffe, (2017): Quantifying O3 Impacts in Urban Areas Due to Wildfires Using a Generalized Additive Model, Environmental Science & Technology, 51 (22), 13216-13223.

  • Kaulfus, A. S., U. S. Nair, C. D. Holmes, and W. M. Landing (2017), Mercury Wet Scavenging and Deposition Differences by Precipitation Type, Environ. Sci. Technol., doi:10.1021/acs.est.6b04187.

  • Holmes, C. D., N. P. Krishnamurthy, J. M. Caffrey, W. M. Landing, E. S. Edgerton, K. R. Knapp, and U. S. Nair (2016), Thunderstorms Increase Mercury Wet Deposition, Environ. Sci. Technol., 50(17), 9343–9350, doi:10.1021/acs.est.6b02586.

  • Niyogi, D., S. Subramanian, U. C. Mohanty, C. M. Kishtawal, S. Ghosh, U. S. Nair, M. Ek, and M. Rajeevan (2016), Perspectives On The Impact Of Land Cover And Land Use Change On The Indian Monsoon Region Hydroclimate, in Land-Atmospheric Interactions in Asia, edited by K. P. Vadrevu, T. Ohara, and C. Justice, Springer.

  • Griffin, R., Oglesby, R., Sever, T. and Nair, U. 2014: Agricultural Landscapes, Deforestation, and Drought Severity, In G. Iannone (ed.), The Great Maya Droughts in Cultural Context. Boulder, University Press of Colorado, 448p.

  • Mahmood, R., Pielke, R. A., Hubbard, K. G., Niyogi, D., Dirmeyer, P. A., McAlpine, C., Carleton, A. M., Hale, R., Gameda, S., Beltrán-Przekurat, A., Baker, B., McNider, R. T., Legates, D. R., Shepherd, M., Du, J., Blanken, P. D., Frauenfeld, O. W., Nair, U.S., Fall, S. (2014). Land cover changes and their biogeophysical effects on climate. International Journal of Climatology, 34(4), 929–953. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/joc.3736

  • Nair, U. S., Wu, Y., Holmes, C. D., Ter Schure, A., Kallos, G., and Walters, J. T., 2013: Cloud-resolving simulations of mercury scavenging and deposition in thunderstorms, Atmos. Chem. Phys. Discuss., 13, 3575-3611, doi:10.5194/acpd-13-3575-2013.