Juan Crespo

I joined the Atmospheric Physics and Weather Group in August 2018. Prior to being at JPL, I completed my Bachelors at Purdue University, and a Masters and PhD at the University of Michigan, where I focused on using new satellite technology to increase our understanding on how extratropical cyclones (ETCs) develop at the mesoscale near the ocean surface. This began with using data from the A-Train constellation, such as AMSR-E and CloudSat; this has now shifted to using CYGNSS (Cyclone Global Navigation Satellite System) for low-latitude ETC analysis.
Growing up in the Midwest of the United States, I have always been curious about winter storms and ETCs. While we have had a good understanding for the past century of the overall genesis and evolution of ETCs at the synoptic level, there is still much to learn regarding their development at the mesoscale and near the ocean surface. My research lately has focused on observing surface winds and heat fluxes within and around ETCs over the open oceans. In order to help our understanding of these processes, we made progress in developing a new satellite product that could aid in this analysis.
In August 2019, we publically released the CYGNSS Surface Heat Flux Product through the NASA PO.DAAC (Physical Oceanography Distributed Active Archive Center). The CYGNSS Fluxes utilize CYGNSS Level-2 wind speed observations, combined with reanalysis data, to estimate the latent and sensible heat fluxes for the entire CYGNSS mission. Given the importance of surface fluxes on various weather and climate patterns, such as low-latitude ETCs, this new product can help the scientific community understand their impact throughout the tropical and subtropical oceans.
If you have any questions regarding the CYGNSS Flux product or recent work, please feel free to contact me using the contact information on the right.