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Prabhakar Shrestha

Prabhakar Shrestha
Duke University, Durham, NC 27708
                              
E-mail: ps45@duke.edu   
Office phone:  (+1) 919 660 8810

Research Interests

My research interest lies in understanding the diurnal cycles of aerosols and rainfall in mountainous regions from field measurements and investigating their linkages through numerical modeling. Here, at Duke University, I am using the remote sensing data from MODIS, TOMS and TRMM to analyze the annual/seasonal or semi-annual cycles of aerosols, cloudiness, and rainfall in the Himalayas. On the other side, at local scales, I am using the aerosol size distribution and chemical composition that I gathered during the field campaign over Central Nepal to characterize the typical size distribution and hygroscopic properties of the aerosol in the region. This will provide a preliminary dataset to study any aerosol indirect effect in this region using numerical model with double moment cloud microphysics.

Education

  • 2006-Present, Duke University, Grad-Student (Doctoral Candidate, Civil and Environmental Engineering Department)
  • 1997-2001, Birla Institute of Technology, Mesra, Ranchi, India, 2001, Bachelors of Engineering, Civil Engineering, Rank One (87.6 %, Distinction)

Professional Experience

  • Jan 2003- Aug 2005, VSBK Programme / Nepal,SDC, Programme Engineer:
  • Jan 2002- Jan2003, ACDPL, Nepal, Site Engineer
  • Aug 2001- Jan2002, ARCON consultancy, Site Engineer

Honors and Awards

  • AMS Student Poster Awards in the 2nd Symposium on Aerosol-Cloud-Climate Interaction [2009].
  • AMS Student Poster Awards in the 1st  Symposium on Aerosol-Cloud-Climate Interaction [2008].
  • NASA Earth and Space Science Fellowship (NESSF) for Characterization of Aerosol-Cloud-Rainfall Interactions and Water Cycle Impacts in the Himalayas (2007~2010)
  • Recipient of Institute Gold Medal from BIT
  • Recipient of Mahendra Vidya Bhusan award.
  • Colombo Plan Scholarship for undergraduate study in India.

Publications

  • Shrestha P., Barros A.P., Khlystov A., Chemical composition and aerosol size distribution of the middle mountain range in the Nepal Himalayas during the 2009 pre-monsoon season, Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics - Discussions, vol. 10 (2010), ppt. 15629-15670
  • Shrestha P., A.P. Barros, 2010: Joint spatial variability of aerosol, clouds and rainfall in the Himalayas from satellite data, Atmos. Chem. Phys., 10, 8305-8317, doi:10.5194/acp-10-8305-2010
  • Barros, A.P., O.P. Prat, P. Shrestha, F.Y. Testik, and L.F. Bliven, 2008. Revisiting Low and List (1982): evaluation of raindrop collision using laboratory observations and modeling. J. Atmos. Sci., 65,2983-2993.

Conference Presentations

  • Shrestha P., J. Brun, and A.P. Barros, 2009: Monitoring of aerosol patterns along the river valleys of Nepal using MODIS visible channels. 12th Conference on Atmospheric Chemistry, 2nd Symposium on Aerosol-Cloud-Climate Interactions [Student Poster Award]
  • Shrestha P., A.P Barros, R. Saleh, A. Khylostov, W.K.M. Lau, S.C. Tsay, Q. Ji, C. Li, R.B. Kayastha, D. Aryal, S. Bell, S. Shrestha, and A. Ghale, 2009: JAMEX2009: Field experiment to develop a physical basis for CCN parameterization over central Nepal. 12th Conference on Atmospheric Chemistry, 2nd Symposium on Aerosol-Cloud-Climate Interactions
  • Shrestha P. , A. P. Barros, 2009. Space time variability of clouds, rainfall and aerosol in Central Nepal using satellite data. 11th Conference on Atmospheric Chemistry, Special Symposium on Aerosol-Cloud-Climate Interactions [Student Poster Award]
  • Shrestha P. , A. P. Barros, 2009. Examining the influence of complex terrain on aerosol transport across the Central Himalayas using a high resolution model. 11th Conference on Atmospheric Chemistry, Special Symposium on Aerosol-Cloud-Climate Interactions
  • Barros, A. P., O. P. Prat, X. Sun, P. Shrestha, and D. K. Miller, 2009. Toward characterizing the 4D structure of precipitation at the headwater catchment scale in mountainous regions. 2009 EGU general assembly, April 19-24 2009, Vienna, Austria.
  • Prat, O. P., A. P. Barros, D. K. Miller, W. Li, P. Shrestha, D. H. Kang, K. Tao, J. Brun, A. Wilson, G. Cutrell, and J. Proud, 2008. On the diurnal cycle of summertime rainfall and boundary conditions in the Great Smoky Mountains: The 2008 IOP at Purchase Knob Research Station. 2008 AGU fall meeting, December 15-19 2008, San Francisco, CA, USA.
  • Barros, A. P., O. P. Prat, P. Shrestha, X. Sun, D. K. Miller, and D. H. Kang, 2008. Observing and modeling orographic land-atmosphere interactions and precipitation processes. 2008 NASA Precipitation Measurement Missions (PMM) science team meeting, August 4-8 2008, Fort Collins, CO, USA.
  • Li, W., A. P. Barros, D. H. Kang, O. P. Prat, P. Shrestha, K. Tao, J. Giovannettone, F. Muňoz, W. Patrick, C. Peters-Lidard, and T. Jackson, 2007. Measurement of boundary layer structure at Fort Cobb during CLASIC, June 2007. 2007 AGU fall meeting, December 10-14 2007, San Francisco, CA, USA.
  • Barros, A. P., O. P. Prat, P. Shrestha, F. Y. Testik, and L. F. Bliven, 2007. Evaluation of raindrop collision parameterizations using laboratory observations and modeling. 9th International Precipitation Conference. November 12-14 2007, Paris, France.
  • Barros, A. P., S. Bhushan, O. P. Prat, K. Tao, D. H. Kang, P. Shrestha, and D. K. Miller, 2007. Integrating research on sensors, observations and models to characterize orographic precipitation processes. 2007 NASA Precipitation Measurement Missions (PMM) science team meeting, May 7-10 2007, Atlanta, GA, USA.
  • Prat, O. P., A. P. Barros, C. R. Williams, and P. Shrestha, 2006. Evolution of the vertical structure of warm rain with detailed microphysics: Comparison against laboratory and field data from a vertically pointing radar. 2006 AGU fall meeting, December 11-15 2006, San Francisco, CA, USA.

Field Experiments

  • Joint Aerosol Monsoon Experiment (JAMEX, 2009, http://climate.gsfc.nasa.gov/viewImage.php?id=263)
  • Measurement of Thermodynamic variables and wind profile using radiosonde and tethersonde in Purchase -Knob, Great Smoky Mountain National Park (2008)
  • Cloud and Land Surface Interaction Campaign (CLASIC, Oklahoma, 2007)

Research and Analysis Tools

  • Cloud Resolving Model with Double Moment Cloud Microphysics [Clark (1977, 1979), Clark and Farley (1984), Clark and Hall (1991,1996)]
  • Weather Research Forecasting Model [WRF]
  • Land Surface Hydrology Model [LSHM, Devonec and Barros, 2002]
  • Programming in Fortran, Matlab, Mathematica, R, IDL, Python, NCL and shell scripts in Linux

Training

  • Weather Research Forecasting Model (WRF) Training Workshop [NCAR 2009]
  • Numerical Techniques for Global Atmospheric Model [Idealized test cases for the dynamical cores of Atmospheric General Circulation Models, NCAR ASP 2008 summer colloquium]