Mahesh Kovilakam
Senior Research Scientist, Contractor, Stratospheric Aerosols and Gas Experiment, Science Directorate, NASA Langley Research Center
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About
Mahesh earned his PhD from the University of Wyoming in 2012 with a degree in atmospheric sciences. He completed his PhD under Professor Terry Deshler with a dissertation titled “On the Accuracy of Stratospheric Aerosol Extinction and Surface Area Derived from In-Situ and Remote Measurements”. In his dissertation work, SAGE II aerosol extinction coefficient and surface area density data were used as one of the main remote measurements for validation purposes. After the completion of his PhD, Mahesh took a position as a postdoc researcher at UCR, where he worked with CMIP5 models to understand precipitation changes in the southwestern US. Prior to coming to Langley in 2017, Mahesh worked as a postdoctoral research associate at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), working with a Global Climate Model (GCM) to understand the impact of aerosols on climate. While working at ORNL, Mahesh conducted and analyzed experiments with CAM4 forced with BC distributions that had been modified to match the vertical profile of smoke derived from CALIPSO satellite measurements.
Mahesh joined the SAGE III/ISS team in 2017. He worked on developing version 2.0 of Global Space-based Stratospheric Aerosol Climatology (GloSSAC). In version 2.0 of GloSSAC, SAGE III/ISS multi-wavelength aerosol extinction coefficient data has been incorporated. He is currently working on developing a cloud filter algorithm for SAGE III/ISS aerosol data.
Publication Bibliography
Select Publications
- Kovilakam, M., Thomason, L., and Knepp, T.: SAGE III/ISS aerosol/cloud categorization and its impact on GloSSAC, Atmos. Meas. Tech., 16, 2709–2731, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-2709-2023, 2023.
- Thomason, L. W., Kovilakam, M., Schmidt, A., von Savigny, C., Knepp, T., and Rieger, L.: Evidence for the predictability of changes in the stratospheric aerosol size following volcanic eruptions of diverse magnitudes using space-based instruments, Atmos. Chem. Phys., 21, 1143–1158, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-1143-2021, 2021.
- Kovilakam, M., Thomason, L., Ernest, N., Rieger, L., Bourassa, A., and Millan, L.: A Global Space-based Stratospheric Aerosol Climatology (Version 2.0): 1979-2018, Earth Syst. Sci. Data Discuss., https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-2020-56, accepted, 2020.
- Deshler, T., B. Luo., M. Kovilakam., T. Peter., L. Kalnajs (2019) : Retrieval of Aerosol Size Distributions From In Situ Particle Counter Measurements: Instrument Counting Efficiency and Comparisons With Satellite Measurements., Journal of Geophysical Research- Atmospheres, 124, https://doi.org/10.1029/2018JD029558
- Kovilakam, M., S. Mahajan, R. Saravanan, and P. Chang (2017): Climate impacts of CALIPSO-guided corrections to black carbon aerosol vertical distributions in a Global Climate Model, Geophysical Research Letters, 44, https://doi.org/10.1002/2017GL074652
- Kovilakam, M., and S. Mahajan (2015): Black carbon aerosols induced Northern Hemisphere tropical expansion, Geophysical Research Letters, 42, 4964-4972, https://doi.org/10.1002/2015GL064559
- Kovilakam, M., and T. Deshler (2015): On the accuracy of stratospheric aerosol extinction derived from in situ size distribution measurements and surface area density derived from remote SAGE II and HALOE extinction measurements, Journal of Geophysical Research-Atmospheres, 120, https://doi.org/10.1002/2015JD023303
- Allen R.J., J. R. Norris, and M. Kovilakam (2014): In uence of anthropogenic aerosols and the Pacific Decadal Oscillation on tropical belt width, Nature Geosci, 7, https://doi.org/10.1038/ngeo2091
Professional Memberships
- AGU
- AMS
Education/Professional Experience
- University of Wyoming, WY, USA, Ph.D., Atmospheric Sciences, Aug. 2012 Advisor: Prof. T. Deshler
- Senior Research Scientist, SSAI/NASA Langley Research Center, Sept. 2019-present
- NASA Postdoctoral Program Fellow, NASA Langley Research Center, Sept. 2017-Aug. 2019
- Postdoctoral Research Associate, Computational Earth Sciences Group, Climate Change Science Institute, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oct. 2014-Jul. 2017, Postdoc
- Department of Earth Sciences, University of California Riverside, Oct. 2012-Sep. 2014
National or International Leadership Positions
- Stratospheric Sulfur and its Role in Climate (SSiRC) steering committee member.
- CMIP7 forcings task team stakeholder.