 | Ronald Smith |
Ronald Smith, recently appointed as the Damon Wells Professor of Geology
and Geophysics, specializes in atmospheric dynamics and physics, regional climate
and remote sensing.
T H I S
Smith has been named to Wells Professorship
Smith, who holds joint appointments in the School of Forestry & Environmental
Studies and the Department of Mechanical Engineering, leads Yale’s program
in mesoscale meteorology and regional climate and is the director of the Yale
Center for Earth Observation (CEO). Created in 1992 as one of the original
Yale Institute for Biospheric Studies centers, the CEO is a research and teaching
laboratory specializing in the use of satellite imagery to study the earth.
His meteorology and climate research includes study of atmospheric dynamics
emphasizing density-stratified fluid dynamics and applied mathematics; observations
of the atmosphere using special research aircraft, balloons and satellite;
hydrometeorology using stable isotopes of water and theories of evaporation
and rain; and satellite remote sensing of landscape changes and climate sensitivity.
The geologist’s projects in these areas have included observations and
theory of winds, gravity waves and turbulence in the troposphere and in the
Alps, Sierras and Andes; the study of water transport and precipitation in
the atmospheres of Connecticut, California and Patagonia; satellite analysis
of landscape changes and water resources in the Near East; and theories of
hurricane motion and landfall, among others. One National Science Foundation-funded
project with which he has been involved is a study and monitoring of whirlwinds,
or “rotors,” in the Sierra Nevada Range of California as well as
the “gravity waves” — not unlike ocean waves or tsunamis — that
are generated by the mountains and the rotors as they spread upwards into the
stratosphere.
Smith earned his doctorate at The Johns Hopkins University. At Yale, he has
been chair of the Department of Geology and Geophysics and has served on a
number of University committees.
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Campus Notes
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