Dan John Miller
Asst. Rsch. Scientist · Non-Tenure Track
Goddard Earth Sci & Tech Center
He/Him/His/Himself
About
Dr. Miller is an Associate Research Scientist at NASA Goddard Spaceflight Center, and is affiliated with UMBC/JCET. His research focus is on simulation of vector radiative transfer in inhomogeneous cloudy atmospheres and the retrieval of cloud microphysical properties. Dr. Miller has worked extensively with multi-spectral and polarimetric data in both modeling and observational capacities, and his current work focuses on instrument observation and retrieval simulation studies for evaluation of future satellite missions.
Research interests
Dan’s research interests range from studying the fundamental physics of clouds and light scattering to the development of novel satellite observing missions and retrieval techniques. On the fundamental physics side of things Dan's interests include study of the influence of the entrained mixing of dry air at cloud tops - which has the potential to impact precipitation processes depending on how turbulently it is mixed. As well as developing theory and models for describing the depth of penetration that polarized light is scattered from clouds before it becomes depolarized by multiple scattering - which sets limits on where our information comes from in the cloud and what cloud processes we can observe from polarimetry. On the satellite mission development side, Dan's work focuses on the simulation of shortwave passive remote sensing clouds and the impact that realistic spatial and microphysical inhomogeneity has on retrievals of cloud properties. These modeled cloud simulators help prepare NASA for future missions and advance our remote sensing retrieval methods in the process. Currently Dan is both developing a polarimetric satellite simulator as part of the PACE Science Team, and serving as the polarimetric cloud microphysics Algorithm Science Lead for the forthcoming Atmosphere Observing System decadal science mission (AOS)
Education
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Ph D, Atmospheric Physics
— University of Maryland, Baltimore County (2017) Satellite Simulator Studies of the Impact of Cloud Inhomogeneity on Passive Cloud Remote Sensing Retrievals
- MS, Atmospheric Physics — University of Maryland, Baltimore County (2013)
- BS, Physics — Michigan Technological University (2011)
Publications
- Retrievals of Biomass Burning Aerosol and Liquid Cloud Properties from Polarimetric Observations Using Deep Learning Techniques 2025
- Influence of the Three-dimensional Radiative Effects on Cloud Droplet Number Concentration Retrievals and their impacts on Aerosol Cloud Interaction Analysis
- Towards a Climate OSSE Framework for Satellite Mission Design
- Investigating Characteristic Droplet Size Distributions in Large Eddy Simulations of Stratocumulus Clouds
Presentations
- Overview of proposed Advanced Cloud Retrieval Products 2025
- Overview of proposed Advanced Cloud Retrieval Products 2025
- Advanced cloud products from the PACE mission 2024
- Developing Advanced Cloud Retrievals for PACE: Building a Joint Spectro-Polarimetric Cloud Microphysics Retrieval 2024
- NASA AOS Mission Report 2024
- Polarimetric Microphysical Retrievals as a Detection of Cloud Top Entrainment 2024
- Evaluation of a hyper-angular cloud microphysical retrieval correction obtained at pixel-level resolution for the bi-spectral technique 2021
Grants and Contracts
- Advancement of PACE polarimetric and spectral cloud retrieval algorithms of OCI and HARP-2 2024
- Scale analysis of planetary boundary layer aerosol properties in convective environments and their underlying observability by remote sensing 2022
- Metasurfaces for compact, next-generation polarimetric remote sensing of aerosols and clouds 2020
- Remote sensing of cloud properties using PACE SPEXone and HARP-2 2020