Vandana Jha

Affiliation: NASA Ames Research Center (ARC) / MEI

Division: Space Science and Astrobiology Division (ST)

Branch: Planetary Systems Branch (STT)

Email: Vandana.jha@nasa.gov

Phone: 669-666-4630

Professional Biography

Dr. Jha serves as a scientist and flight instrument engineer at NASA ARC, bringing over fifteen years of expertise in cloud physics and cloud dynamics modeling for both Earth and Mars climates. She possesses extensive experience in in-situ data collection and analysis. Dr. Jha’s role extends to Mission Operations for the Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover (VIPER) mission, where she operates the Near-IR Volatile Spectrometer System (NIRVSS) instrument payload. Additionally, she contributes to the NASA ARC Flight Instrument Group (FIG), where she is involved in the development and operation of various instruments such as the Nephelometer, Commercial Depth Camera, Mars Sonic Anemometer, and Mars Doppler Wind & Thermal Sounder (DWTS), particularly focusing on Ozone Gas Cell Development.

Experience:

Planetary Scientist, NASA, Ames Research Center (ARC), Moffett Field, CA, (Jun 2019- present)

Post-Doctoral Fellow, NASA, ARC, Moffett Field, CA, (May 2016- Apr 2019)

Education

Ph.D. Atmospheric Sciences, Colorado State University, May 2016

M.S Atmospheric Sciences, University of Nevada, Reno, August 2012

M.S Electrical Engineering, University of Nevada, Reno, December 2010

Research Interests

Instrumentation, in situ data collection, analysis and interpretation.

Mars atmosphere and climate, planetary atmosphere, and habitability.

Dust lifting and transport, cloud radiative feedback and dust and water cycle interactions.

Cloud microphysics, cloud dynamics, dust, and aerosol pollution, CCN, GCCN and IN

Select Publications

Jha, V. and Kahre, M.A, 2024: Effects of radiatively active clouds on wind stress based dust lifting and maintaining background dust opacity during Northern Hemisphere Mars; Icarus (in prep).

Jha, V., Cotton, W.R., Carrio., G.G., and Walko, R., 2020: Seasonal estimates of the impacts of aerosol and dust pollution on orographic precipitation in the Colorado River Basin, Journal of Physical Geography.

Jha, V. and Kahre, M.A, 2017: Effects of radiatively active clouds on wind stress dust lifting during Northern Summer on Mars, Sixth International Workshop on the Mars Atmosphere: Modeling and Observations.

Hudson, J.G., Noble, S. and Jha, V., 2012: Cloud droplet spectral width relationship to CCN spectra and vertical velocity, J. Geophys. Res., DOI: 10.1029/2012JD017546

Hudson, J.G., Noble, S. and Jha, V., 2010: Comparisons of CCN with supercooled Clouds, J. Atmos. Sci., 67, 3006–3018.

Hudson, J.G., Noble, S., Jha, V. and Mishra, S., 2009: Correlations of small cumuli droplet and drizzle drop concentrations with CCN concentrations, J. Geophys. Res., DOI: 10.1029/2008JD010581

Select Conference Publications

Jha, V., Banfield, D., Colaprete, A., Cook, White, B., Garrett, M. P., Rademacher, Dave, A.M., Agrawal, P., and Stotzky, O., 2023: NASA Ames Flight Instrument Group – MARS Exploration Efforts Overview, Bay Area Planetary Science Conference, September 19, 2023.

Jha, V., Garrett, M.P, White, B., Shimada, J., A., Cook., Colaprete, A., Heldmann, J.K., A. M., Dave, A., Paige, C., Ward, F., Ekblaw, A., Auffinger, S., Newmann, D., Mitchell, M., Meyen, F., Brokaw, B., Wagner, V., and Justadt, B., 2022: Ruggedizing a Microsoft Kinect for the Moon, American Geophysical Union, Fall Meeting 2022, Chicago, IL, December 12-16, 2022.

Jha, V., Colaprete, A., Cook, Garrett, M. P, Ngo, K. White, B., and A. M., Dave, A., 2022: Balloon Flight for NephEx: A Nephelometer for probing planetary atmospheres, International Planetary Probe Workshop, Santa Clara, CA, August 13-17, 2022.

Roush, T. L., Colaprete, A., Cook, A., Bielawski, R., Ennico-Smith, K., Noe Dobrea, E.,Benton, J.,Forgione, J.,White, B.,McMurray, R., Jha, V., Hoang, D., Youngquist, C., Connally, J., Renema, F.,Zhang, A.,Henschke, M.,Luzzi, E.,Hee, L.,Garrett, M.Chin, M.,Ellingson, L., 2021: The Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover (VIPER) Near Infrared Volatile Spectrometer System (NIRVSS), 52nd Lunar and Planetary Science Conference, March 15-19, Houston, Texas. (oral).

Jha, V., and Kahre, M., 2018: Radiatively active clouds and its impact on dust opacity in Northern Hemisphere Summer Mars, American Geophysical Union Fall 2018 meeting, Washington DC, Washington, December 10-14 (oral).

Jha, V., Cotton, W.R., Carrió, G.G., and Pierce, J., 2016: Examination of The Potential Impacts of Dust and Pollution Aerosol Acting as Cloud Nucleating Aerosol on water resources in the Colorado River Basin. The 17th International Conference on Clouds & Precipitation (ICCP), Manchester, England, Jul 24-29 (oral).

NASA Missions

VIPER – (Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover) https://science.nasa.gov/mission/viper/

Awards & Others

APEX – NASA Ames Project Excellence Program Completion Certificate for mission concept development and maturation (2022-2023)

NASA Group Achievement Award, VIPER for successful delivery of the VIPER mission plan from         concept development to Mission Confirmation at VIPER’s Key Decision Point (KDP-C) DPMC (Sept 2021).

NASA Postdoctoral Program fellowship award (2016-2019).

Student Leadership, Involvement, and Community Engagement (SLICE) grant 2014 at CSU.