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Kevin Smalley

Photo of Kevin Smalley

Address:

4800 Oak Grove Drive

Pasadena, CA 91109

Phone:

818-393-1842

Fax:

818-354-3223

Curriculum Vitae:

Click here

Member of:

Aerosols And Clouds

Employed By

Caltech/JPL

Biography

During undergrad, my initial research endeavors started by using global climate models to look at how a changing climate impacts extreme precipitation over Alaska. That then developed from looking at the impacts of a changing climate on extreme precipitation to using global climate models to investigate the transport of water vapor into the stratosphere. Throughout the initial portion of my graduate school journey, I lost interest in looking at the impact of large-scale features on climate using climate models, and began to gain interest in investigating, observationally, small-scale features that are important to constraining climate models and climate sensitivity. From this, my doctoral work focused on how shallow cloud macroscale characteristics, organization, and the environment that they develop in impact warm rain production. This leads into my postdoctoral research which will focus on using satellite observations to investigate factors including precipitation that are important for transitions from closed to open-cell stratocumulus as seen within the major stratocumulus regions over the global oceans.

Education

  • B.S. in Meteorology, Iowa State University, 2014
  • M.S. in Atmospheric Science, Texas A&M University, 2016
  • Phd in Atmospheric Science, Texas A&M University, 2020

Professional Experience

  • JPL Postdoctoral Scholar (November 2019 - Present)

Community Service

  • Texas A&M University Physics Fest Volunteer
  • Texas A&M University Big Event Volunteer
  • Texas State Science Olympiad Meteorology Event Organizer
  • Los Angeles County Science Fair Judge

Research Interests

  • Cloud Microphysics
  • Cloud-Aerosol-Interactions
  • Stratocumulus Organization

Selected Awards

  • Texas A&M University Office of Graduate and Professional Studies Research & Presentation Travel Award - Fall 2019

Selected Publications

  1. Smalley K. M. and M. D. Lebsock 2023: Corrections for Geostationary Cloud Liquid Water Path Using Microwave Imagery, Journal of Atmospheric and Oceanic Technology https://doi.org/10.1175/JTECH-D-23-0030.1.
  2. Smalley, K. M., Lebsock, M. D., Eastman, R., Smalley, M., and Witte, M. K. 2022: A Lagrangian analysis of pockets of open cells over the southeastern Pacific, Atmos. Chem. Phys., 22, 8197–8219, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-8197-2022.
  3. Smalley K. M., and A. D. Rapp 2021: A-Train estimates of the sensitivity of the cloud-to-rain-water ratio to cloud size, relative humidity, and aerosols, Atmos. Chem. Phys., 21, 2765-2779, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-2765-2021
  4. Smalley K. M., and A. D. Rapp 2021: The impact of rain rate, raining patch size, and spacing on southeastern Pacific cloud fraction transitions, Environmental Research Communications, 3(5), https://doi.org/10.1088/2515-7620/abf9ad
  5. Smalley, K.M. and A.D. Rapp, 2020: The Role of Cloud Size and Environmental Moisture in Shallow Cumulus Precipitation. Journal of Applied Meteorology and Climatology, 59, 535-550, https://doi.org/10.1175/JAMC-D-19-0145.1
  6. Smalley, K. M., Glisan, J. M., & Gutowski, W. J. Jr., 2019: Alaska daily extreme precipitation processes in a subset of CMIP5 global climate models. Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres, 124. https://doi.org/10.1029/2018JD028643
  7. Smalley, K. M., Dessler, A. E., Bekki, S., Deushi, M., Marchand, M., Morgenstern, O., Plummer, D. A., Shibata, K., Yamashita, Y., and Zeng, G., 2017: Contribution of different processes to changes in tropical lower-stratospheric water vapor in chemistry-climate models, Atmos. Chem. phys., 17, 8031-044, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-17-8031-2017.