General Lab Information

Karen Johnson

Senior Applications Engineer, ARM Translator & Developer Group, Environmental and Climate Sciences Department

Karen Johnson

Brookhaven National Laboratory

Environmental and Climate Sciences Department
Bldg. 490D, Room 2-2
P.O. Box 5000
Upton, NY 11973-5000

(631) 344-5952
kjohnson@bnl.gov

Johnson serves as the data mentor for the scanning and zenith-pointing millimeter cloud radars operated by the DOE Atmospheric Radiation Program. In this role, she contributes to ensuring data quality, facilitates the conversion of raw radar data into ARM-standard form in the ARM Archive and addresses data issues and user inquiries as they arise. In her other major role, she develops value-added products to make ARM instrument observations more readily useable for scientific purposes. She has worked extensively on development and processing of the Active Remote Sensing of CLouds (ARSCL) family of products, which combine cloud radar observations with lidar and other remote sensing measurements to determine cloud boundaries and best-estimate radar moments. She has also developed a user-interface tool to assist ARM data users in Doppler radar spectra data discovery.

Expertise | Research | Education | Appointments | Publications

Expertise

  • Radar Meteorology
  • Cloud Properties
  • Data Acquisition and Analysis
  • User Interface Development

Research Activities

  • Senior Applications Engineer, Biological, Environmental & Climate Sciences Department, 2014-Present
  • Advanced Applications Engineer, BECS Dept., 2001-2013
  • Programmer Analyst, BNL Collider-Accelerator Department, 1997-2000
  • Meteorology Research Assistant, Florida State University, 1986-1996

Education

  • Florida State University, M.S. Computer Science
  • University of Oklahoma, M.S. Meteorology
  • University of Maryland, B.S. Physical Sciences

Professional Appointments

  • American Meteorological Society
  • American Geophysical Union
  • ARM Reprocessing Advisory Board, 2012-Present.
  • Instructor for AMS Radar Short Course, 2011.

Selected Publications

  • Sokolowsky GA, Clothiaux EE, Baggett CF, Lee S, Feldstein SB, Eloranta EW, Cadeddu MP, Bharadwaj N, Johnson KL (2020) Contributions to the Surface Downwelling Longwave Irradiance during Arctic Winter at Utqiagvik (Barrow), Alaska. Journal of Climate 33:4555–4577. doi: 10.1175/jcli-d-18-0876.1
  • Lamraoui F, Booth JF, Naud CM, Jensen MP, Johnson KL (2019) The Interaction Between Boundary Layer and Convection Schemes in a WRF Simulation of Post Cold Frontal Clouds Over the ARM East North Atlantic Site. Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres 124:4699–4721. doi: 10.1029/2018jd029370
  • Van Weverberg K, Morcrette CJ, Petch J, Klein SA, Ma H -Y., Zhang C, Xie S, Tang Q, Gustafson WI, Qian Y, Berg LK, Liu Y, Huang M, Ahlgrimm M, Forbes R, Bazile E, Roehrig R, Cole J, Merryfield W, Lee W -S., Cheruy F, Mellul L, Wang Y -C., Johnson K, Thieman MM (2018) CAUSES: Attribution of Surface Radiation Biases in NWP and Climate Models near the U.S. Southern Great Plains. Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres 123:3612–3644. doi: 10.1002/2017jd027188
  • Jensen MP, Holdridge DJ, Survo P, Lehtinen R, Baxter S, Toto T, Johnson KL (2016) Comparison of Vaisala radiosondes RS41 and RS92 at the ARM Southern GreatPlains site. Atmospheric Measurement Techniques 9:3115–3129. doi: 10.5194/amt-9-3115-2016
  • Jensen MP, Holdridge D, Survo P, Lehtinen R, Baxter S, Toto T, L. Johnson K (2015) Comparison of Vaisala radiosondes RS41 and RS92 at the ARM Southern Great Plains Site. Atmospheric Measurement Techniques Discussions 8:11323–11368. doi: 10.5194/amtd-8-11323-2015
  • Kollias P, Bharadwaj N, Widener K, Jo I, Johnson K (2014) Scanning ARM Cloud Radars. Part I: Operational Sampling Strategies. Journal of Atmospheric and Oceanic Technology 31:569–582. doi: 10.1175/jtech-d-13-00044.1
  • Kollias P, Jo I, Borque P, Tatarevic A, Lamer K, Bharadwaj N, Widener K, Johnson K, Clothiaux EE (2014) Scanning ARM Cloud Radars. Part II: Data Quality Control and Processing. Journal of Atmospheric and Oceanic Technology 31:583–598. doi: 10.1175/jtech-d-13-00045.1
  • Xie S, McCoy RB, Klein SA, Cederwall RT, Wiscombe WJ, Jensen MP, Johnson KL, Clothiaux EE, Gaustad KL, Long CN, Mather JH, McFarlane SA, Shi Y, Golaz J-C, Lin Y, Hall SD, McCord RA, Palanisamy G, Turner DD (2010) CLOUDS AND MORE: ARM Climate Modeling Best Estimate Data. Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society 91:13–20. doi: 10.1175/2009bams2891.1
  • Huang D, Johnson K, Liu Y, Wiscombe W (2009) High resolution retrieval of liquid water vertical distributions using collocated Ka-band and W-band cloud radars. Geophysical Research Letters. doi: 10.1029/2009gl041364
  • Luke EP, Kollias P, Johnson KL, Clothiaux EE (2008) A Technique for the Automatic Detection of Insect Clutter in Cloud Radar Returns. Journal of Atmospheric and Oceanic Technology 25:1498–1513. doi: 10.1175/2007jtecha953.1
  • Turner DD, Vogelmann AM, Austin RT, Barnard JC, Cady-Pereira K, Chiu JC, Clough SA, Flynn C, Khaiyer MM, Liljegren J, Johnson K, Lin B, Long C, Marshak A, Matrosov SY, McFarlane SA, Miller M, Min Q, Minimis P, O'Hirok W, Wang Z, Wiscombe W (2007) Thin Liquid Water Clouds: Their Importance and Our Challenge. Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society 88:177–190. doi: 10.1175/bams-88-2-177
  • Kollias P, Miller MA, Luke EP, Johnson KL, Clothiaux EE, Moran KP, Widener KB, Albrecht BA (2007) The Atmospheric Radiation Measurement Program Cloud Profiling Radars: Second-Generation Sampling Strategies, Processing, and Cloud Data Products. Journal of Atmospheric and Oceanic Technology 24:1199–1214. doi: 10.1175/jtech2033.1
  • Mather JH, McFarlane SA, Miller MA, Johnson KL (2007) Cloud properties and associated radiative heating rates in the tropical western Pacific. Journal of Geophysical Research. doi: 10.1029/2006jd007555
  • Kollias P, Albrecht BA, Clothiaux EE, Miller MA, Johnson KL, Moran KP (2005) The Atmospheric Radiation Measurement Program Cloud Profiling Radars: An Evaluation of Signal Processing and Sampling Strategies. Journal of Atmospheric and Oceanic Technology 22:930–948. doi: 10.1175/jtech1749.1
Karen Johnson

Brookhaven National Laboratory

Environmental and Climate Sciences Department
Bldg. 490D, Room 2-2
P.O. Box 5000
Upton, NY 11973-5000

(631) 344-5952
kjohnson@bnl.gov

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