Radiance Calmer
Postdoctoral Scientist
About Radiance
Radiance Calmer is a postdoctoral researcher at NSIDC and at the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences (CIRES). After participating in the Multidisciplinary drifting Observatory for the Study of Arctic Climate (MOSAiC) expedition in 2020, she began analyzing the data to bring complementary information about the sea ice during the melting season, particularly focusing on albedo. Before concentrating on polar climate, Calmer studied atmospheric boundary layer and aerosol-cloud interactions. All her research projects use uncrewed aerial systems (UAS) to collect data from the atmosphere or the sea ice. She is also contributing to instrument development for UAS. Previous and current instrumentation projects are focused on wind measurements with multi-hole probes. She has acquired some expertise for field deployment of UAS in harsh conditions. Beyond concentrating on research, Calmer is currently leading, with three other early-career scientists, a discussion group on sustainability in science, and more specifically on how to improve sustainable practices in field work.
Specialties
Current Research
Uncrewed Aircraft measurements of surface albedo and melt pond fraction in the High Arctic during the melting season: Uncrewed aerial systems (UAS), commonly drones, are very flexible platforms that can be adapted to harsh conditions as in the Arctic region. UAS provides complementary information of the sea ice, bridging the altitude scale from more traditional surface, helicopter, and satellite-based observation methods. The different features of the sea ice during the melting season as bare ice, snow with sediments, melt ponds or open ocean present a wide range of albedo (ratio between reflected and incoming solar radiation). Ongoing work focuses on analyzing UAS data on albedo measurements and melt pond fraction. The HELiX UAS flights occurred during the 2020 summer months as part of the MOSAiC expedition. Source of support: NSF
