Dr. Mei Han's research focuses on precipitation and cloud microphysics, and cyclone and frontal dynamics in the middle to high latitudes. She uses satellite active and passive microwave instruments, airborne remote-sensing and in-situ instruments, and research and operational models to study precipitation and cloud dynamics, microphysical properties, and processes.
Dr. Han’s past research includes evaluations of multiple bulk and bin microphysics schemes in the Weather Research and Forecasting model, using forward radiative transfer models to improve the understanding of cloud and precipitation microphysics, and diagnostics of circulations associated with the occluded front. Her current research projects are involved with the NASA Investigation of Microphysics and Precipitation for Atlantic Coast-Threatening Snowstorms (IMPACTS) field campaign and the Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) mission. Her recent research effort includes understanding the global distribution of precipitation mean particle size with the GPM mission and using airborne data and the NWP models to understand supercooled liquid water (SLW) in snow-producing clouds. Currently, she and her colleagues are conducting exciting research about how gravity waves and turbulence might produce SLW at the cloud top.