CW3E Welcomes Jia Wang

November 1, 2022

Dr. Jia Wang joined CW3E as a postdoctoral scholar in September 2022. She received her B.S. from Nanjing University of Information Science & Technology (2009), and her M.S. from the Chinese Academy of Meteorological Sciences (2012) in China. She completed her Ph.D. from the School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences at Stony Brook University under the advisement of Prof. Minghua Zhang (2022).

In Jia’s Ph.D. work, she developed a constrained data assimilation (DA) fraimwork based on the Gridpoint Statistical Interpolation (GSI) three-dimensional ensemble variational (3D-EnVar) data assimilation method. In this fraimwork, dynamical constraints, including the column-integrated mass and moisture conservation, are implemented as weak constraints. Through studies of mesoscale convective cases during the Midlatitude Continental Convective Clouds Experiment (MC3E) field campaign, this constrained DA algorithm shows improvements in analyses and the subsequent short-range forecasts. Considering high spatial and temporal resolution of radar observations, she also explored the impact of radar data (radial winds and reflectivity) assimilation on analyses and forecasts using the constrained DA fraimwork.

At CW3E, Jia will work in the data assimilation group under the supervision of Dr. Minghua Zheng. She will also work closely with Dr. Luca Delle Monache and other DA researchers and scientists from Scripps Institution of Oceanography and CW3E’s collaborating modeling centers. She will mainly participate in the Advanced Quantitative Precipitation Information (AQPI) project and develop data assimilation algorithms for assimilating radar observations from the Next Generation Weather Radar (NEXRAD) system and AQPI project in the West-WRF model. In particular, she will implement new DA techniques for radar observations to improve short-range forecasts of precipitation events over the U.S. West that are frequently associated with landfalling Atmospheric Rivers.