Relating satellite microwave observations of precipitation and the large-scale environment to improve the understanding and predicting of tropical cyclones

The NASA Postdoctoral Program (NPP) offers unique research opportunities to highly-talented scientists to engage in ongoing NASA research projects at a NASA Center, NASA Headquarters, or at a NASA-affiliated research institute. These one- to three-year fellowships are competitive and are designed to advance NASA's missions in space science, Earth science, aeronautics, space operations, exploration systems, and astrobiology. This specific research opportunity focuses on tropical cyclones (TCs) and their complex multi-scale processes. The successful candidate will collect a comprehensive set of satellite observations of named Tropical Storms and tropical depressions from 1999-2022, including geostationary IR data, passive microwave observations from LEO satellites, and concurrent reanalysis fields. The fellow will develop analysis tools and metrics to test hypotheses about convective organization in relation to environmental factors and storm evolution. The research aims to improve understanding of how convective activity distribution and intensity affect storm evolution, particularly regarding the role of the environment and inner-core processes. The candidate will join a group of scientists working on similar research, collaborate with them, prepare journal papers, and participate in developing new proposals.