Hello, welcome to my personal webpage

I am an atmospheric physicist focusing on:

• Atmospheric radiative transfer,
• Light and electromagnetic scattering,
• Atmospheric and oceanic remote sensing.

Contact email: jdingali@hotmail.com

My research on radiative transfer and light scattering aims to improve the accuracy and efficiency of remote sensing and climate/weather modeling, and deepen our understanding of the atmosphere and terrestrial environment.

I developed a vector radiative transfer model (VRTM) and associated Jacobian computational model for a coupled atmosphere-land-ocean system, in support of remote sensing using radiometric and polarimetric observations. The VRTM was developed based on the state-of-the-art radiative transfer and light scattering theories and techniques, and is featured with high accuracy and efficiency.

I recently made a breakthrough in light scattering by spheroidal particles, which is reported in the ELS Newsletter. Starting from Maxwell’s equations, I derived an analytical solution to optical properties of spheroids based on spheroidal coordinates. Compared with previous studies, my new formulation is much more numerically stable, and the maximum applicable particle size is extended by more than 30 times. The new approach will be used to simulate optical properties of nonspherical particles such as coarse-mode aerosol and oceanic particles for radiative transfer parameterization in climate/weather models and remote sensing retrieval algorithms. The new approach can also model optical properties of interstellar dust for astronomical applications and of biological cells to facilitate biomedical optics research.

My research also includes the study of optical and microphysical properties of ice clouds and dust aerosol employing satellite observations in visible, infrared and microwave bands. For example, I used a combination of spaceborne lidar and radiometer to constrain the microphysical and optical properties of cirrus clouds. I developed a temperature-dependent ice crystal optical properties in microwave frequencies for radar and microwave/sub-millimeter radiometry remote sensing.

I am also interested in the applications of radiative transfer and light scattering techniques in other fields, such as planetary sciences and astronomy. A halo was observed on Mars in 2022. Based on my light scattering simulation results, we found that the halo was a result of a mixture of water and CO₂ ice crystals. I developed a 3D Monte Carlo radiative transfer model to infer interstellar dust properties from observations of a supernova. Based on the model, I also developed an innovative method to estimate the distance between Earth and the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC).

Please take a look at my CV and my publications for more details.

Professional experience

I am now an Assistant Research Scientist at the Department of Atmospheric Sciences in Texas A&M University. Before, I was a Postdoctoral Research Associate at the same department.

Educational background

• Ph.D. in Atmospheric Sciences, Texas A&M University, USA, May 2019
  Dissertation title: “A Fast Vector Radiative Transfer Model for Polarimetric Remote Sensing” [Link], supervised by Prof. Ping Yang
• B.S. in Information Engineering (Optoelectronics), Nanjing University, China, July 2014