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Allison Collow

Photo of ALLISON COLLOW

Allison Collow

  • RESEARCH SCIENTIST
  • 301.614.6653
  • NASA/GSFC
  • Mail Code: 610.1
  • Greenbelt , MD 20771
  • Employer: UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND BALTIMORE CO

    • Research Interests

    Climate variability and extreme weather events, regional radiation budgets, cloud and aerosol radiative effects


    Current Projects

    A Reanalysis Synthesis of EOS observations for the National Climate Assessment

    Reanalyses such as MERRA-2 contain valuable information that can be used to evaluate the climate across the United States, how it has changed over the past 40 years, and the processes that result in extreme weather events that can be disseminated to the general public and decision makers. As part of this project, Dr. Collow's primary focus is to use the renanalysis products developed by the GMAO to determine the large scale influences that result in regional extreme precipitation events. Dr. Collow also contributes towards ensuring this information is placed in a format that is easily understood by the public by calculating indices to represent characteristics of temperature and precipitation and placing output from MERRA-2 on GMAO's FLUID webpage.

    Connecting the Radiative Influences of Aerosol upon the Mass Flux Profiles of Shallow Cumuli across the Central Atlantic Ocean Basin and its Boundaries

    Marine boundary layer clouds, including the transition from stratocumulus to cumulus, are poorly represented in numerical weather prediction and general circulation models, and the uncertainty associated with such clouds is even larger when in the presence of absorbing aerosol. Using observations collected from a recent field campaign in the Southeast Atlantic and data from MERRA-2, Dr. Collow is working on quantifying the radiative impact of biomass burning aerosol and how it impacts the life cycle of marine boundary layer clouds as a plume of absorbing aerosol travels from southern Africa across the Atlantic Ocean.

    Evaluation of Near Surface Temperature, Precipitation, and Radiation in GMAO Products

    As GEOS continues to evolve, it is important to ensure that the model represents the Earth system in an appropriate manner. Whether due to prescribed boundary conditions, the assimilation of new observations, or physical parameterizations, Dr. Collow works to determine why biases in near surface temperature, precipitation, or radiative fluxes may be present in GEOS and reducing these issues in future versions of the model.

    Education

    M.S. (2012): Rutgers University
    Ph.D. (2015): Rutgers University

    Selected Publications

    Refereed

    Collow, A. B., V. Buchard, P. R. Colarco, et al. A. M. da Silva, R. Govindaraju, E. P. Nowottnick, S. Burton, R. Ferrare, C. Hostetler, and L. Ziemba. 2022. "An evaluation of biomass burning aerosol mass, extinction, and size distribution in GEOS using observations from CAMP2Ex." Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics, 22 (24): 16091-16109 [10.5194/acp-22-16091-2022]

    Collow, A. B., C. A. Shields, B. Guan, et al. S. Kim, J. M. Lora, E. E. McClenny, K. Nardi, A. Payne, K. Reid, E. J. Shearer, R. Tomé, J. D. Wille, A. M. Ramos, I. V. Gorodetskaya, L. R. Leung, T. A. O’Brien, F. M. Ralph, J. Rutz, P. A. Ullrich, and M. Wehner. 2022. "An Overview of ARTMIP's Tier 2 Reanalysis Intercomparison: Uncertainty in the Detection of Atmospheric Rivers and Their Associated Precipitation." Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres, 127 (8): e2021JD036155 [10.1029/2021jd036155]

    Collow, A., N. P. Thomas, M. G. Bosilovich, et al. Y.-K. Lim, S. D. Schubert, and R. D. Koster. 2022. "Seasonal variability in the mechanisms behind the 2020 Siberian heatwaves." Journal of Climate, 35 (10): 3075-3090 [https://doi.org/10.1175/JCLI-D-21-0432.1]

    Marquardt Collow, A. B., M. A. Miller, L. C. Trabachino, M. P. Jensen, and M. Wang. 2020. "Radiative heating rate profiles over the southeast Atlantic Ocean during the 2016 and 2017 biomass burning seasons." Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics, 20 (16): 10073-10090 [10.5194/acp-20-10073-2020]

    Collow, A. B., H. Mersiovsky, and M. G. Bosilovich. 2020. "Large-Scale Influences on Atmospheric River Induced Extreme Precipitation Events Along the Coast of Washington State." Journal of Hydrometeorology, (In Press) [10.1175/jhm-d-19-0272.1]

    Collow, A. B., R. I. Cullather, and M. G. Bosilovich. 2020. "Recent Arctic Ocean Surface Air Temperatures in Atmospheric Reanalyses and Numerical Simulations." Journal of Climate, 33 (10): 4347–4367 [10.1175/jcli-d-19-0703.1]

    Collow, A., M. G. Bosilovich, and R. D. Koster. 2016. "Large Scale Influences on Summertime Extreme Precipitation in the Northeastern United States." Journal of Hydrometeorology, JHM-D-16-0091.1 [10.1175/jhm-d-16-0091.1]

    Marquardt Collow, A. B., and M. A. Miller. 2016. "The Seasonal Cycle of the Radiation Budget and Cloud Radiative Effect in the Amazon Rainforest of Brazil." J. Climate, JCLI-D-16-0089.1 [10.1175/jcli-d-16-0089.1]

    Collow, A. M., M. A. Miller, and L. C. Trabachino. 2016. "Cloudiness over the Amazon Rainforest: Meteorology and Thermodynamics." J. Geophys. Res. Atmos., [10.1002/2016jd024848]

    Collow, A., V. P. Ghate, M. A. Miller, and L. C. Trabachino. 2015. "A one-year study of the diurnal cycle of meteorology, clouds and radiation in the West African Sahel region." Quarterly Journal of the Royal Meteorological Society, 142 (694): 16-29 [10.1002/qj.2623]

    Non-Refereed

    Collow, A., S. P. Mahanama, M. G. Bosilovich, R. D. Koster, and S. D. Schubert. 2017. "An Evaluation of Teleconnections Over the United States in an Ensemble of AMIP Simulations with the MERRA-2 Configuration of the GEOS Atmospheric Model." NASA Technical Report Series on Global Modeling and Data Assimilation, NASA/TM-2016-104606 47: 68.

    Selected Publications

    Refereed

    Collow, A. B., V. Buchard, P. R. Colarco, et al. A. M. da Silva, R. Govindaraju, E. P. Nowottnick, S. Burton, R. Ferrare, C. Hostetler, and L. Ziemba. 2022. "An evaluation of biomass burning aerosol mass, extinction, and size distribution in GEOS using observations from CAMP2Ex." Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics 22 (24): 16091-16109 [10.5194/acp-22-16091-2022]

    Collow, A. B., C. A. Shields, B. Guan, et al. S. Kim, J. M. Lora, E. E. McClenny, K. Nardi, A. Payne, K. Reid, E. J. Shearer, R. Tomé, J. D. Wille, A. M. Ramos, I. V. Gorodetskaya, L. R. Leung, T. A. O’Brien, F. M. Ralph, J. Rutz, P. A. Ullrich, and M. Wehner. 2022. "An Overview of ARTMIP's Tier 2 Reanalysis Intercomparison: Uncertainty in the Detection of Atmospheric Rivers and Their Associated Precipitation." Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres 127 (8): e2021JD036155 [10.1029/2021jd036155]

    Collow, A., N. P. Thomas, M. G. Bosilovich, et al. Y.-K. Lim, S. D. Schubert, and R. D. Koster. 2022. "Seasonal variability in the mechanisms behind the 2020 Siberian heatwaves." Journal of Climate 35 (10): 3075-3090 [https://doi.org/10.1175/JCLI-D-21-0432.1]

    Marquardt Collow, A. B., M. A. Miller, L. C. Trabachino, M. P. Jensen, and M. Wang. 2020. "Radiative heating rate profiles over the southeast Atlantic Ocean during the 2016 and 2017 biomass burning seasons." Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics 20 (16): 10073-10090 [10.5194/acp-20-10073-2020]

    Collow, A. B., H. Mersiovsky, and M. G. Bosilovich. 2020. "Large-Scale Influences on Atmospheric River Induced Extreme Precipitation Events Along the Coast of Washington State." Journal of Hydrometeorology (In Press) [10.1175/jhm-d-19-0272.1]

    Collow, A. B., R. I. Cullather, and M. G. Bosilovich. 2020. "Recent Arctic Ocean Surface Air Temperatures in Atmospheric Reanalyses and Numerical Simulations." Journal of Climate 33 (10): 4347–4367 [10.1175/jcli-d-19-0703.1]

    Collow, A., M. G. Bosilovich, and R. D. Koster. 2016. "Large Scale Influences on Summertime Extreme Precipitation in the Northeastern United States." Journal of Hydrometeorology JHM-D-16-0091.1 [10.1175/jhm-d-16-0091.1]

    Marquardt Collow, A. B., and M. A. Miller. 2016. "The Seasonal Cycle of the Radiation Budget and Cloud Radiative Effect in the Amazon Rainforest of Brazil." J. Climate JCLI-D-16-0089.1 [10.1175/jcli-d-16-0089.1]

    Collow, A. M., M. A. Miller, and L. C. Trabachino. 2016. "Cloudiness over the Amazon Rainforest: Meteorology and Thermodynamics." J. Geophys. Res. Atmos. [10.1002/2016jd024848]

    Collow, A., V. P. Ghate, M. A. Miller, and L. C. Trabachino. 2015. "A one-year study of the diurnal cycle of meteorology, clouds and radiation in the West African Sahel region." Quarterly Journal of the Royal Meteorological Society 142 (694): 16-29 [10.1002/qj.2623]

    Non-Refereed

    Collow, A., S. P. Mahanama, M. G. Bosilovich, R. D. Koster, and S. D. Schubert. 2017. "An Evaluation of Teleconnections Over the United States in an Ensemble of AMIP Simulations with the MERRA-2 Configuration of the GEOS Atmospheric Model." NASA Technical Report Series on Global Modeling and Data Assimilation, NASA/TM-2016-104606 47 68

                                                                                                                                                                                            
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    • Last Updated: 03/24/2023