Samuel LeBlanc
Research Scientist, Bay Area Environmental Research Institute
Branch: Atmospheric Science Branch (SGG)
Email: samuel.leblanc@nasa.gov & leblanc@baeri.org
Phone: (650) 604-0143
Website: https://www.samueleleblanc.com/
Professional Bio
Samuel LeBlanc spends a lot of time measuring how aerosols and clouds interact with sunlight and how they affect current and future climate.
His research is focused on cloud and aerosol remote sensing. Dr. LeBlanc is interested in quantifying cloud and aerosol properties in areas difficult to sample from satellites to evaluate their radiative effect on climate and refine process understanding. In this context, he combines remote sensing products of clouds and aerosol from satellite, ground-based, and airborne measurements, while focusing on hyperspectral measurements of transmitted sunlight. Dr. LeBlanc uses observations and their interpretations, developed new measurement technologies, and implemented new retrieval methodologies to further the understanding of climate radiative effects. Linking technical aspects of instrument and technology development with remote sensing and process understanding is one of his strong interests.
Dr. LeBlanc, originally from New-Brunswick, Canada, graduated in 2014 from University of Colorado with a PhD in Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences, from the group led by Dr. Peter Pilewskie. Dr. LeBlanc’s obtained a Bachelor of Science degree in physics from the University of Ottawa in 2007. Dr. LeBlanc currently works at Bay Area Environmental Research Institute (BAERI) as part of the NASA Ames Sunphotometer-Satellite (Sunsat) research group, since 2016. His role is aimed at data collection and analysis for numerous airborne field campaigns (e.g., ORACLES, KORUS-AQ, NAAMES, ARISE, SEAC4RS) using the 4STAR (Spectrometers for Sky-Scanning Sun-Tracking Atmospheric Research) instrument. He is also pushing the development of the next generation of airborne sun and sky radiometers (muSSTAR and 5STAR).