John J. Cassano

Our group’s observational activities in the polar regions focus on the atmospheric boundary layer. In the Antarctic we deploy instrumented towers and use UAS to observe the atmospheric boundary layer - the portion of the atmosphere that directly interacts with the underlying surface. We have led or taken part in 8 UAS field campaigns in the Antarctic since 2009 including several late winter campaigns. Currently our Antarctic field work is focused in West Antarctica where the largest ice sheet warming on the continent has been observed over the past several decades.

In 2020 our group took part in the largest Arctic field campaign ever - the Multi-disciplinary drifting Observatory for the Study of Arctic Climate (MOSAiC). During the MOSAiC campaign the German Polarstern icebreaker was frozen into the Arctic sea ice and drifted across the Arctic for an entire year. Our group performed UAS flights, from late winter through summer, to provide high time and space resolution observations of the atmospheric boundary layer. The data that we collected is one piece of a comprehensive dataset for understand the physical processes that shape the Arctic climate system.

Our larger-scale studies of the polar climate system, using reanalysis data and climate modeling, currently focuses on the role of storms and other high impact weather events on the coupled climate system. We have developed a comprehensive database of Arctic cyclones in several atmospheric reanalysis products as well as from the Regional Arctic System Model (RASM) to determine how cyclones of varying intensity impact Arctic sea ice as they traverse areas of low and high ice concentration and open water. Evidence suggests that episodic events, such as individual storms, can have a large impact on sea ice loss and our study seeks to gain insights into the physical processes that are most critical for modulating storm - ice interactions.