Dr. Janak Raj Joshi

Research Associate · Non-Tenure Track

Goddard Earth Sci & Tech Center

He/Him/His/Himself

About

Dr. Janak Joshi is a Postdoctoral Research Associate at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center (through GESTAR II-UMBC), with a Ph.D. in Climate Dynamics and an M.S. in Atmospheric Physics. His research focuses on atmospheric aerosols and windblown dust, with pioneering work on dust from cropland wind erosion, now widely recognized. Dr. Joshi’s contributions support the improvement of air-quality or dust models and advance an understanding of dust storm predictability. Dr. Joshi is actively engaged with the model development activities for the GOCART aerosol module within NASA’s GEOS Earth System Model.

Research interests

Atmospheric aerosols, Wind erosion and dust storms, Remote sensing, Atmospheric dynamics, Biogeochemistry

Teaching interests

Atmospheric physics (aerosols, radiation, thermodynamics); Atmospheric predictability

Education

  • Ph D, Climate Dynamics — George Mason University (2023)
    Modeling and Predictability of Dust Storms and Atmospheric Dustiness Over the Western United States
  • MS, Atmospheric Physics — University of Maryland Baltimore County (2018)
  • Other, Earth System Physics — The Abdus Salam International Centre for Theoretical Physics (2016)
    Representation and Impact of Dust Mineralogical Composition in a Regional Climate Model
  • MS, Physics — Central Department of Physics, Tribhuvan University (2012)