Contact Information
1301 W Green Street
Natural History Building Room 3074
M/C 104
Urbana, IL 61801
Natural History Building Room 3074
M/C 104
Urbana, IL 61801
Professor, Department of Atmospheric Sciences
Biography
Prof. Nesbitt leads a research group in the Department of Atmospheric Sciences, where his research and teaching interests reside in observations and modeling of clouds and precipitation processes across the globe. He has participated in more than 20 field campaigns on 4 continents, and was the lead Principal Investigator of the NSF/NOAA/NASA RELAMPAGO (Remote sensing of Electrification, Lightning, And Mesoscale/microscale Processes with Adaptive Ground Observations) and Co-PI of the DOE Clouds, Aerosols, and Complex Terrain Interactions (CACTI) field campaign in Argentina and Brazil in 2018-19. He serves as a member of the American Meteorological Society Committee on Mesoscale Processes and the scientific planning team for the planned NASA Aerosols Clouds Convection Precipitation mission. He is a member of the University Senate, and a faculty affiliate of the Computational Science and Engineering program.
Research Interests
- precipitation processes and cloud dynamics
- mesoscale meteorology
- tropical meteorology
- radar and satellite meteorology
- data science in atmospheric sciences
Education
- Ph.D., 2003, Meteorology, University of Utah
- M.S., 1999, Meteorology, Texas A&M University
- B.S. Honors, summa cum laude, 1997, Meteorology, State University of New York College at Oswego
Awards and Honors
- Highly Meritorious Meteorology Senior Award, State University of New York College at Oswego, 1997
- Excellence in Graduate Research Award, University of Utah, 2003
- NASA Earth System Science Graduate Fellowship
- Editors’ Citation for Excellence in Refereeing for Journal of Geophysical Research – Atmospheres, American Geophysical Union, 2006, 2007, 2011
- NASA Robert H. Goddard Award, as member of the NASA Global Precipitation Measurement mission Ground Validation team, 2015
- NASA Group Achievement Award, 2010, 2015
- Award for Outstanding Service to the Radar Meteorology Committee, American Meteorological Society, 2016
academic positions
- Professor, Department of Atmospheric Sciences, University of Illinois, 2019 - present
- Associate Professor, Department of Atmospheric Sciences, University of Illinois, 2012 - 2019
- Assistant Professor, Department of Atmospheric Sciences, University of Illinois, 2006 - 2012
- Research scientist I, II, Department of Atmospheric Science, Colorado State University, 2003 - 2006
leadership positions
Associate Head, Department of Atmospheric Sciences, 2021 - 2023
Head, Department of Atmospheric Sciences, 2023 -
selected service activities
- Member, Chair of the American Meteorological Society Scientific and Technical Committee on Radar Meteorology, 2008 - 2016
- Co-Chair, American Meteorological Society 35th Conference on Radar Meteorology, Pittsburgh, PA, 2011
- Editor, Journal of Applied Meteorology, 2010 - 2014
- Member of the American Meteorological Society Scientific and Technical Committee on Mesoscale Meteorology, 2019 - present
- Member, Universities Space Research Association Earth Sciences Council, 2016 - present
- Co-Chair, American Meteorological Society 19th Conference on Mesoscale Meteorology, Location TBD, 2021
selected publications
- Suarez, S. R, M. Sued, L. Vidal, P. Salio, D. Rodriguez, S. Nesbitt, and Y. G. Skabar, 2018: Supervised classification techniques for discrimination between meteorological and non-meteorological echoes using a C-band radar. Meteorologica, 44, 45-65, Link.
- Mulholland, J. P., S. W. Nesbitt, R. Trapp, K. L. Rasmussen, and P. V. Salio, 2018: Convective storm life cycle and environments near the Sierras de Córdoba, Argentina. Monthly Weather Review, 146, 2541–2557, https://doi.org/10.1175/MWR-D-18-0081.1.
- Trapp, R., G. R. Marion, and S. W. Nesbitt, 2018: Reply to “Comments on ‘The regulation of Tornado intensity by updraft width.’” Journal of the Atmospheric Sciences, 75, 4057–4061, https://doi.org/10.1175/JAS-D-18-0276.1.
- Chase, R. C., J. A. Finlon, P. C. Borque, G. A. McFarquhar, S. W. Nesbitt, M. Poellot, S. Tanelli, 2018: Evaluation of Triple-Frequency Radar Retrieval of Snowfall Properties Using Coincident Airborne In Situ Observations During OLYMPEX. Geophysical Research Letters, 45, 5752–5760, https://doi.org/10.1029/2018GL077997.
- Finlon, J. A., G. M. McFarquhar, S. W. Nesbitt, R. M. Rauber, H. Morrison, W. Wu, and P. Zhang, 2019: A novel approach for characterizing the variability in mass-dimension relationships: Results from MC3E. Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics, 19, 3621–3643, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-19-3621-2019.
- Borque, P., K. J. Harnos, S. W. Nesbitt, and G. M. McFarquhar, 2019: Improved parameterization of ice particle size distributions using uncorrelated mass spectrum parameters; results from GCPEx. Journal of Applied Meteorology and Climatology, 58, 1657–1676, https://doi.org/10.1175/JAMC-D-18-0203.1.
- Tridon, F., A. Battaglia, A., R. J. Chase, F. J. Turk, J. Leinonen, J., S. Kneifel, K. Mroz. J. Finlon, A. Bansemer, S. Tanelli, A. J. Heymsfield, and S. W. Nesbitt, 2019: The microphysics of stratiform precipitation during OLYMPEX: compatibility between 3‐frequency radar and airborne in situ observations. Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres, 124. https://doi.org/10.1029/2018JD029858.
- Mulholland, J.P., S.W. Nesbitt, and R.J. Trapp, 2019: A Case Study of Terrain Influences on Upscale Convective Growth of a Supercell. Monthly Weather Review, 147, https://doi.org/10.1175/MWR-D-19-0099.1.
- Marion, G., R. J. Trapp, and S. W. Nesbitt, 2019: Using overshooting top area to discriminate potential for large, intense tornadoes. Geophysical Research Letters, 46. https://doi.org/10.1029/2019GL084099.
- Borque, P. C., S. W. Nesbitt, R. J. Trapp, S. Lasher-Trapp, and M. Oue, 2019: Observational study of the thermodynamics and morphological characteristics of a midlatitude continental cold pool event. Monthly Weather Review, 147, https://doi.org/10.1175/MWR-D-19-0068.1.