The Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) user facility currently has 89 instrument scientists and engineers overseeing the operation of ARM’s 460-plus instrument systems worldwide. These scientists and engineers, whom ARM calls instrument mentors, help ensure that high-quality data are reaching the user community.
ARM welcomes 11 new mentors from four U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) national laboratories and two universities.
Brookhaven National Laboratory
Three of ARM’s new mentors—Min “Mindy” Deng, Ogochukwu “Ogo” Enekwizu, and Christopher “Chris” Hayes—are from Brookhaven National Laboratory in New York.
Deng is an associate mentor for the Ka-, W-, and X-band scanning ARM cloud radars; Ka-Band ARM Zenith Radar; and Marine W-Band (95 GHz) ARM Cloud Radar. Enekwizu serves as an associate mentor for the cloud condensation nuclei particle counter. Meanwhile, Hayes is an associate mentor for a group of instruments that operate within ARM’s Aerosol Observing Systems.
Deng has been at Brookhaven Lab since 2022, where she is a research staff scientist in radar meteorology. Before that, she was a research scientist for almost four years in the University of Colorado Boulder’s Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics.
Deng’s use of ARM data dates to her PhD studies at the University of Utah, where she retrieved ice cloud properties and in-cloud vertical air motion from radar observations at ARM’s Southern Great Plains, Tropical Western Pacific, and North Slope of Alaska atmospheric observatories. The retrieved cloud properties have been used in studies of algorithm intercomparisons, cloud seasonal variations, and model evaluation.
Enekwizu is a research associate in aerosol processes and observing systems at Brookhaven Lab. In the lab, she creates soot-seeded clouds to help scientists better understand how particles from wildfires can affect cloud formation and climate.
Enekwizu came to Brookhaven Lab in 2021 after receiving her PhD in chemical engineering from the New Jersey Institute of Technology. Learn more about Enekwizu in this scientist profile.
Hayes is an applications engineer in aerosol-related infrastructure within Brookhaven Lab’s Environmental and Climate Sciences Department. He has his Bachelor of Science in computer science and chemistry from Stony Brook University.
Hayes completed two summer internships as part of DOE’s Science Undergraduate Laboratory Internships (SULI) program. He was a SULI intern with Brookhaven Lab in 2019 and Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee in 2020.
National Renewable Energy Laboratory
Two new associate mentors from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) in Colorado are assisting with ARM solar and longwave radiometric measurements.
Shawn Jaker and Jaemo Yang are associate mentors for the broadband radiometer station, solar infrared radiation station, and radiometers that measure ground and sky radiation.
Jaker is a research technician in NREL’s Solar Radiation Research Laboratory. There, he maintains and troubleshoots the Baseline Measurement System, which is the largest collection of radiometers in continuous operation. He also supports instrument deployments and develops prototype sensors.
Jaker joined NREL in January 2023 after being an atmospheric science researcher at the University of North Dakota (UND). While attending UND, he earned bachelor’s degrees in atmospheric science, commercial aviation, and flight education with minors in mathematics and computer science.
Yang is a researcher in NREL’s Power Systems Engineering Center. He joined NREL in 2018 after receiving his PhD in environmental engineering from the University of Connecticut.
Yang’s research interests lie in developing methods for solar and wind forecasting based on numerical weather prediction and downscaling future climate projections for applications related to renewable energy.
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
Jerry Tagestad is the new lead instrument mentor for ARM’s video camera aboard aircraft. He is an earth scientist and team leader at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) in Washington state.
Tagestad came to PNNL in 2000. He has a master’s degree in geography with an emphasis in GIS/remote sensing from Utah State University.
Meanwhile, new PNNL earth scientist Marqi Rocque is working for ARM as a radar data analyst and an associate radar mentor. Rocque’s mentorship focuses on the C- and X-band scanning ARM precipitation radars; Ka-, W-, and X-band scanning ARM cloud radars; and Ka-Band ARM Zenith Radar.
In May 2023, Rocque completed her PhD in atmospheric science at Colorado State University. Her PhD dissertation, which explored the influence of terrain on the characteristics and life cycle of convection observed in subtropical South America, used ARM data from Argentina.
Argonne National Laboratory
Sujan Pal is a new ARM soil and flux associate mentor at Argonne National Laboratory in Illinois. Pal, a hydroclimatologist in Argonne’s Environmental Science Division, helps oversee ARM’s energy balance Bowen ratio system, eddy correlation flux measurement system, surface energy balance system, and soil temperature and moisture profile system.
Pal, who received his PhD from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign in 2021, is also a co-principal investigator for a new DOE Urban Integrated Field Laboratory led by Argonne. DOE is funding the Argonne-led laboratory in Chicago, Illinois, and three other laboratories in Arizona, Maryland, and Texas to study urban climate change.
University-Based Mentors
Tim Devadoss and Carson Hume, research associates at Colorado State, are now ARM associate mentors for the ice nucleation spectrometer.
Since 2020, Hume has been a technician helping ARM ice nucleation mentors Jessie Creamean and Tom Hill with filter sample analysis of ice-nucleating particles collected at ARM sites. He has bachelor’s degrees in chemistry and Spanish language and literature from Colorado State.
Devadoss came to Colorado State and joined Creamean and Hill’s team as a technician in June 2023 after receiving his master’s degree in engineering from West Texas A&M University. Before pursuing his master’s studies, he worked as an engineer for Renault Nissan Automotive India Pvt. Ltd. and Ford Motor Co.
Meanwhile, Hunter Barndt from the University of Alaska (UAF) Fairbanks is a new associate mentor for the laser disdrometers, solid particles mass flux sensors, sonic ranging sensors, and weighing bucket precipitation gauge at ARM’s North Slope of Alaska observatory.
Barndt is a research professional at the Geographic Information Network of Alaska (GINA), located within UAF’s Geophysical Institute. In July 2023, after graduating from UAF with bachelor’s degrees in physics and computer science, he started working with ARM’s mentor team at UAF. He has helped the team create data processing scripts and analyze snow and meteorological data from instruments on the North Slope.
Happy Retirement
After 28 years with ARM, Victor Morris of PNNL sailed into full retirement this month.
Early in his ARM career, Morris served as a microwave radiometer mentor and contributed to the original integration of instruments for the North Slope of Alaska and Tropical Western Pacific observatories.
Later, he was the lead mentor for the total sky imager, infrared sky imager, infrared thermometer, and ceilometer.
Morris retired from full-time work at PNNL in December 2021 but continued to work with ARM as an associate instrument mentor.
ARM would like to thank Morris for his years of service to the user facility.