David Kingsmill

Research Scientist III

About David

David Kingsmill is a research scientist at the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences (CIRES) and a lecturer in the Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences (ATOC) at the University of Colorado Boulder. He is a member of the research group led by John Cassano. Kingsmill focuses on analysis of observations to better understand mesoscale and microscale atmospheric processes over various regions of the globe.

Specialties

Mountain meteorology, cloud and precipitation microphysics, mesoscale meteorology, radar meteorology

Current Research

The Ross Island region of Antarctica is a topographically complex region with large variations in mesoscale high wind and precipitation features. The goal of this research is to increase the understanding of the three-dimensional structure of these mesoscale meteorology features. This research will leverage observations from the scanning X-band radar installed during the AWARE field campaign in 2016, and those from an EWR Radar Systems X-band scanning radar (E700XD) deployed during the 2019-20 field season. The specific science questions in this study are: 

  • What are the signatures of the mesoscale high wind features that are detectable by a scanning X-band, Doppler radar? How can they be used to aid in operational forecasting, and to increase lead time of high wind event warnings? How can greater lead time improve safety and logistics in the Ross Island region?
  • How does the orientation of the mesoscale high wind events affect the severity of the impacts of the high winds at logistically significant locations across the Ross Island region?
  • What is the distribution of precipitation across the Ross Island region? Are there local topographic features that result in banding of precipitation across the region?
  • What is the accuracy of AMPS in forecasting mesoscale precipitation and wind features across the Ross Island region during the main body season?

Source of support: NSF

Education

Ph.D., University of California, Los Angeles, 1991
M.S., University of California, Los Angeles, 1987
B.S., University of California, Los Angeles, 1984