Atmospheric scientist, model developer, and diver.

Cheng Dang joined the JCSDA in Boulder, CO, in January 2020, as a project scientist with the Community Radiative Transfer Model (CRTM) core team. Her primary responsibility and focus include improving the representation of aerosol species and their solar optical properties in CRTM for a better constraint on AOD and irradiance data assimilation and exploring other scientific questions revolving around aerosol radiative effects.

Cheng obtained her Ph.D. degree in Atmospheric Sciences from the University of Washington in 2017, researching the radiative impact of light-absorbing particles (LAPs) in snow. During her Ph.D. study, she participated in a two-month field campaign to sample the LAPs in snow, which were analyzed in labs by spectrophotometer and chemical experiments for the LAP concentration and species. She then studied the radiative effects of observed LAPs in the snow with various assumptions of snow optical properties. After graduation, Cheng joined the Department of Earth System Science of the University of California, Irvine, to improve the solar radiative simulation of snow, sea ice, and aerosols in the Energy Exascle Earth System Model (E3SM). She developed a hybrid radiative transfer model that can be applied to any cryospheric surface in the Earth system models for efficient and accurate simulation of cryosphere solar radiative properties. Now, Cheng is excited to explore the scientific potentials of CRTM.

Apart from science, Cheng loves movies, traveling, and exploring the ocean as deep as her diving license permits.