Mr. Kristopher Bedka has spent most of his professional career analyzing atmospheric processes and prediction using satellite-, airborne-, and ground-based observations and models. Throughout his career, he has focused on: 1) development, validation, and application of automated satellite-based convective initiation nowcasting, atmospheric motion vector retrieval, ice crystal aircraft icing, overshooting convective cloud top detection, and above anvil plume / enhanced-V signature detection algorithms, 2) development of satellite-based climatologies of hazardous convective storms, 3) cloud microphysical property retrievals using visible light and passive infrared observations, 4) use of airborne lidar wind, aerosol, and water vapor profiling instruments for atmospheric research and satellite instrument calibration and validation, and 5) convectively-induced tropospheric/stratospheric exchange studies. He has authored or co-authored 50+ peer-reviewed publications on these and other topics, and has a Google Scholar h-index of 29 with over 2500 citations of his papers. He has been or is currently the PI for several NASA ROSES projects within the 2015 Severe Weather Research, 2016 NASA Data for Operations and Assessment, 2018 Applied Sciences Disasters, and the 2019 Earth Science Research From Operational Geostationary Satellite Systems programs. He is a Co-I for the NASA Earth Venture-Suborbital Dynamics and Chemistry of the Summer Stratosphere (DCOTSS) mission. He is currently the instrument scientist for the NASA Doppler Aerosol Wind Lidar (DAWN) and was a PI for the April 2019 NASA Aeolus Cal/Val Test Flight Campaign with the DC-8 aircraft. His work has incorporated cloud-resolving numerical weather prediction model output, passive satellite observations from the global constellation of geosynchronous and polar-orbiting passive satellite imagers, CloudSat, CALIPSO, airborne observations from DAWN, High Altitude Lidar Observatory (HALO), dropsondes, and in-situ probes, NOAA National Weather Service WSR-88D Doppler radar data, and 4-dimensional total lightning detection data.

• Google Scholar

• Evaluating the Ability of Remote Sensing Observations to Identify Significantly Severe and Potentially Tornadic Storms [AMS]
• The Above-Anvil Cirrus Plume: An Important Severe Weather Indicator in Visible and Infrared Satellite Imagery [AMS]
• A Probabilistic Multispectral Pattern Recognition Method for Detection of Overshooting Cloud Tops Using Passive Satellite Imager Observations [AMS]
• A case study of convectively sourced water vapor observed in the overworld stratosphere over the United States [JGR Atmospheres]
• A prototype method for diagnosing high ice water content probability using satellite imager data [AMT]

• NASA Exceptional Achievement Medal (2018) for satellite-based analysis and detection of hazardous convection
• H.J.E. Reid Award (2019) for the most outstanding publication of the year from NASA LaRC.
• NASA Group Achievement Awards:
  • Advanced Satellite Aviation Weather Products (ASAP) Initiative (2006)
  • MACPEX Field Campaign (2012)
  • Aviation Climate Change Research Initiative (2014)
  • The CERES Cloud Property Retrieval Subsystem (2014)
  • The Mount Kelud Volcanic Ash Measurement Mission (2017)
  • NASA HIWC (2019)
  • BATAL project (2019)
  • NAAMES (2019) 

• American Geophysical Union
• American Meteorological Society

• B.S. in Meteorology (Magna Cum Laude), Northern Illinois University (08/1996-05/2000)
• M.S. in Atmospheric Science, University of Wisconsin-Madison (09/2000-08/2002)
• Associate Researcher, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Cooperative Institute for Meteorological Satellite Studies (9/2002 to 07/2009)
• Senior Research Scientist, Science Systems and Applications, Inc. (SSAI) in the Science Directorate at the NASA Langley Research Center (08/2009 to 05/2014)
• Research Physical Scientist, Science Directorate, NASA Langley Research Center (05/2014-Present)

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