David Painemal
Research Physical Scientist, Climate Science Branch, Science Directorate, NASA Langley Research Center
About
Dr. David Painemal is a Research Physical Scientist for the Science Directorate at NASA Langley Research Center. He joined the CERES group as a NASA postdoctoral fellow, later transitioning into a scientist for 3 NASA contracts. His research interests include satellite remote sensing of clouds and aerosols, aerosol-cloud-radiation interactions, and the Earth radiation budget. Dr. Painemal has served as a Principal Investigator (PI) and co-PI for several projects funded by NASA and the Department of Energy and has published over 60 peer-reviewed articles. Dr. Painemal is currently a member of the CERES Cloud Working Group and the Satellite ClOud and Radiation Property retrieval System (SatCORPS).
Education/Professional Experience
- Ph.D., Meteorology and Physical Oceanography, University of Miami
Publication Bibliography
Select Publications
- Painemal., D., Smith W., Gupta, S., Moore, R., Cairns, B., McFarquhar, G., O’Brien, J. (2025). Can we rely on satellite visible/infrared microphysical retrievals of boundary layer clouds in partially cloudy scenes? Implications for climate research (in press).
- Zhou, X., Painemal, D., Gettleman, A., & Feingold, G. (2025). Exploring causal relationships and adjustment timescales of aerosol-cloud interactions in geostationary satellite observations and CAM6 using wavelet phase coherence analysis. Geophysical Research Letters, 52, e2024GL111961. https://doi.org/10.1029/2024GL111961.
- Chellappan, S., and Coauthors, (2024). Microphysical Evolution in Mixed-Phase Midlatitude Marine Cold-Air Outbreaks. J. Atmos. Sci., 81, 1725–1747, https://doi.org/10.1175/JAS-D-23-0203.1.
- Qiu, S., Zheng, X., Painemal, D., Terai, C. R., and Zhou, X. (2024). Daytime variation in the aerosol indirect effect for warm marine boundary layer clouds in the eastern North Atlantic, Atmos. Chem. Phys., 24, 2913–2935, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-2913-2024.
- Park, J. M., McComiskey, A. C., Painemal, D., & Smith, W. L., Jr. (2024). Long-term trends in aerosols, low clouds, and large-scale meteorology over the Western North Atlantic from 2003 to 2020. Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres, 129, e2023JD039592. https://doi.org/10.1029/2023JD039592.
- Painemal, D., Chellappan, S., Smith, W. L. Jr., Spangenberg, D., Park, J. M., Ackerman, A., et al. (2023). Wintertime synoptic patterns of midlatitude boundary layer clouds over the western North Atlantic: Climatology and insights from in situ ACTIVATE observations. Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres, 128, e2022JD037725. https://doi.org/10.1029/2022JD037725.
- Siu, L. W., Schlosser, J. S., Painemal, D., Cairns, B., Fenn, M. A., Ferrare, R. A., Hair, J. W., Hostetler, C. A., Li, L., Kleb, M. M., Scarino, A. J., Shingler, T. J., Sorooshian, A., Stamnes, S. A., and Zeng, X. (2023). Retrievals of aerosol optical depth over the western North Atlantic Ocean during ACTIVATE, Atmos. Meas. Tech., 17, 2739–2759, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-2739-2024.
- Li, Z., Painemal, D., Schuster, G., Clayton, M., Ferrare, R., Vaughan, M., Josset, D., Kar, J., and Trepte, C.: (2022). Assessment of tropospheric CALIPSO Version 4.2 aerosol types over the ocean using independent CALIPSO–SODA lidar ratios, Atmos. Meas. Tech., 15, 2745–2766, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-15-2745-2022.
- Kato, S., Rose, F. G., Chang, F.-L., Painemal, D., & Smith, W. L. (2021). Evaluation of regional surface energy budget over ocean derived from satellites. Frontiers in Marine Science, 8, 1264. https://doi.org/10.3389/fmars.2021.688299.
- Painemal D., and Coauthors (2021). Evaluation of satellite retrievals of liquid clouds from the GOES-13 Imager and MODIS over the midlatitude North Atlantic during NAAMES campaign, Atmospheric Measurement Techniques, 14, 6633–6646, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-14-6633-2021.
- Minnis, P., Sun-Mack, S., Chen, Y., Chang, F., Yost, C. R., Smith, W. L., et al. (2020). CERES MODIS cloud product retrievals for edition 4–part I: Algorithm changes. IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing, 1–37. https://doi.org/10.1109/TGRS.2020.3008866.