Da-Lin Zhang

Da-Lin Zhang has been a professor at the Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Science of University of Maryland since 1996. He received professional training from the Department of Meteorology, Pennsylvania State University, where he obtained his M.S. in 1981 and Ph.D. in 1985. From 1986 to 1988, he worked as a postdoctoral fellow at the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR), which is sponsored by the National Science Foundation. After spending one year at the University of Toronto, he took a faculty position in the Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences at McGill University. Prof. Zhang works on the modeling and understanding of fundamental processes taking place in squall lines, mesoscale convective complexes, hurricanes and heavy rain- (or snow-) storms, tropical and extratropical cyclones, gravity waves, frontal circulations and topographically generated weather phenomena. His research involves simulating a variety of different severe convective systems and cyclones; examining the meso-beta-scale structures and evolution as well as the mechanism(s) whereby they develop; testing theories, hypotheses and various model physical representations; and finally interpreting, to the extent possible, the observed behaviors of these weather systems. His research interests also include the development and improvement of the planetary boundary layer and cumulus parameterization techniques, cloud representations in mesoscale numerical models, and the improvement of warm-season quantitative precipitation forecasts and severe weather warnings. His graduate student, Tyler Wawrzyniak, is working on limb correction of ATMS measurements under a CICS task.