Water is key to life on Earth. The hydrologic cycle describes how water is stored in various reservoirs (e.g. atmosphere, rivers, lakes, snowpacks) and how it moves between these reservoirs via fluxes (e.g. precipitation, evaporation, runoff). Hence studying the hydrologic cycle enables better understanding of how we can sustainably live on Earth under current and future conditions.
The research in our group covers the broad areas of surface hydrology and hydrometeorology. Our research group focuses on two primary goals:
The ultimate application of these research efforts are to improve water resource management and mitigate the effects of environmental hazards.
Specifically our research involves: land surface modeling; atmospheric boundary layer modeling using simple mixed-layer models and large-eddy simulations; distributed watershed modeling, diagnostic studies of land-atmosphere coupling and sensitivities; microwave remote sensing and data assimilation of soil moisture; snow modeling; snowpack characterization using visible, infrared, and microwave remote sensing and data assimilation; remote sensing and downscaling of land surface forcing variables.