Hampton University
100 E. Queen St. Hampton, VA 23668
(757) 727 - 5000
Visit Website
This is an initiative of the Commerce Department's National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Educational Partnership Program (EPP) to expand education, research and professional opportunities in NOAA-related sciences. Hampton University (HU) is working in partnership with The City College of New York, the University of Puerto Rico Mayaguez, Bowie State University, and the University of Maryland Baltimore County, in the NOAA-Cooperative Remote Sensing Science and Technology Center (CREST).
The CREST research team at HU has developed projects that include analyzing NOAA NESDIS data from the SBUV and the future National Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite System (NPOESS) suite of instruments since the program's inception in October, 2001. The research region includes the stratosphere, mesosphere, and upper troposphere. CREST-HU faculty, post-doctoral fellows, and graduate students are actively involved in global satellite data analysis, lidar development, and validation. Synergies between NOAA and NASA instruments have been explored and ongoing research involves developing climatologies of trace-gas, cloud and aerosol measurements from the SAGE II and III, LITE, HALOE, and SBUV/2. Trends analysis and comparisons between SBUV/2 and OMI ozone measurements are now conducted on a regular basis to investigate the mutual consistency and quality of these data sets. In addition, the investigation of water vapor and aerosols is an essential component of climate data analysis and directly supports the scientific goals of both the NWS and NESDIS. CREST-HU faculty are also engaged in research to improve limb-scattering retrieval algorithms used by instruments such as the OMPS limb profiler, which is scheduled to fly on the NPOESS Preparatory Project (NPP) satellite and analyzing the A-Train suite of instruments. These combined research projects and established collaborations with NOAA scientist's aid in an expanded understanding of trace-gas transport, chemistry, and associated coupling in the mesosphere, stratosphere and upper troposphere and add information on factors involved in global change (e.g. radiative forcing) and thus have a significant impact on NOAA research objectives. CREST-HU faculty have produced 13 journal publications, 13 refereed proceedings, and 41 conference presentations during the first 5 years of the program.
CREST-HU scientists also work closely with member institutions of the CREST team and mentor graduate and undergraduate students on research topics that support NOAA environmental assessment and prediction missions. The CREST program at HU has produced 2 M.S. and 4 Ph.D. degrees with more in the pipeline. In addition, the HU students have contributed numerous presentations at national conferences. Leveraging the CREST program has allowed HU to develop an undergraduate Atmospheric and Planetary Science (APS) minor. This minor has encouraged undergraduate students to become involved in scientific research and to be enlightened about scientific issues germane to NOAA. Hampton University has also formed a new Department of Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences that offers M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in either Atmospheric or Planetary Science. Current and future CREST-HU research activities include: 1) incorporating A-Train data validation and analysis to investigate stratosphere-troposphere exchange, transport, and chemistry processes, 2) constructing global aerosol, cloud, and trace-gas climatologies derived from satellite measurements, 3) improving multiple-linear-regression models for application in trace-gas trend estimates and climatology development, 4) improving our ability to retrieve ozone profiles from existing LS measurements, 5) introducing and testing a LS stratospheric aerosol retrieval algorithm, suitable for use in the OMPS mission, 6) work with NESDIS on new remote sensing techniques, applications, and potential future satellite missions, and 7) study polar stratospheric and mesospheric clouds from the CALIPSO and Aeronomy of Ice in the Mesosphere (AIM) experiments.
