Ping Yang

About

Ping Yang is a University Distinguished Professor and the David Bullock Harris Chair in Geosciences at Texas A&M University. He has held the title of University Distinguished Professor since 2020 and has been a faculty member in the Department of Atmospheric Sciences since September 2008. Yang also serves as an adjunct professor in the Departments of Oceanography and Physics & Astronomy at TAMU, and is affiliated with the Institute for Quantum Science & Engineering. He has held leadership roles including Senior Associate Dean for Research in the College of Arts and Sciences and Department Head of Atmospheric Sciences. His research focuses on remote sensing of cloud and aerosol properties from satellite observations, radiation parameterizations, radiative forcing effects, and the optical properties of particles relevant to atmospheric and oceanic systems. Yang's group utilizes data from instruments such as MODIS, CERES, AIRS, POLDER, and CALIPSO to study ice clouds, dust aerosols, and their radiative impacts, developing advanced computational models and databases for optical properties. His contributions include developing state-of-the-science light scattering computational capabilities, creating extensive optical property databases, and improving radiative transfer models for climate and remote sensing applications. Yang has received numerous awards and honors, including fellowships from the American Geophysical Union, OPTICA, AMS, APS, and AAAS, as well as prestigious…

Research topics

• Environmental science
• Geology
• Physics
• Meteorology
• Remote sensing
• Optics
• Materials science
• Computer Science
• Geography
• Algorithm

Selected publications

• CERES MODIS Cloud Product Retrievals for Edition 4—Part I: Algorithm Changes

  IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing · 2020 · 204 citations

  The Edition 2 (Ed2) cloud property retrieval algorithm system was upgraded and applied to the MODerate-resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) data for the Clouds and the Earth's Radiant Energy System (CERES) Edition 4 (Ed4) products. New calibrations for solar channels and the use of the 1.24-μm channel for cloud optical depth (COD) over snow improve the daytime consistency between Terra and Aqua MODIS retrievals. Use of additional spectral channels and revised logic enhanced the cloud-top…

  DOI

• A comprehensive database of the optical properties of irregular aerosol particles for radiative transfer simulations

  Journal of the Atmospheric Sciences · 2021 · 79 citations

  Abstract A database (TAMUdust2020) of the optical properties of irregular aerosol particles is developed for applications to radiative transfer simulations involving aerosols, particularly dust and volcanic ash particles. The particle shape model assumes an ensemble of irregular hexahedral geometries to mimic complex aerosol particle shapes in nature. State-of-the-art light scattering computational capabilities are employed to compute the single-scattering properties of these particles for wide…

  DOI

• Advanced Bulk Optical Models Linking the Backscattering and Microphysical Properties of Mineral Dust Aerosol

  Geophysical Research Letters · 2021 · 60 citations

  Senior authorCorresponding

  Abstract Sensitivities of the backscattering properties to the microphysical properties (in particular, size and shape) of mineral dust aerosols are examined based on TAMUdust2020, a comprehensive single‐scattering property database of irregular aerosol particles. We develop the bulk mineral dust particle models based on size‐resolved particle ensembles with randomly distorted shapes and spectrally resolved complex refractive indices, which are constrained by using in situ observations reported…

  DOI

• Remote Sensing of Ice Cloud Properties With Millimeter and Submillimeter-Wave Polarimetry

  IEEE Journal of Microwaves · 2024-10-01 · 8 citations

  articleOpen access

  Ice clouds are poorly constrained in current global climate and weather models and have been used as a tuning parameter in the models to balance radiation budget at the top of atmosphere and precipitation at the surface. Sub-millimeter-wave (Submm) remote sensing can fill the sensitivity gap of cloud ice observations between visible/infrared (VIS/IR) and microwave (MW) frequencies. The added value from submm-wave bands has been recognized for achieving a better understanding of cloud, convection…

  PublisherDOI

• Separation of variables method for light scattering by two-layer spheroids with size parameters up to 1000

  Optics Express · 2025-08-20 · 2 citations

  articleOpen accessSenior author

  A spheroid has one more degree of freedom than a sphere, namely the aspect ratio defined as the ratio of the length of the rotational axis to that of the other axis perpendicular to the rotational symmetry axis. Previous studies demonstrated that the optical properties of natural nonspherical particles can be reasonably represented by those of spheroids. A two-layer spheroid has different refractive indices for the inner and outer layers, and accounts for both nonsphericity and inhomogeneity of…

  PublisherDOI

Recent grants

• Collaborative Research: Inferring Marine Particle Properties from Polarized Volume Scattering Functions

  NSF · $197k · 2015–2018

• Development of Rigorous Computational Capabilities Based on the Invariant Imbedding Principle for the Simulation of the Optical Properties of Dust and Ice Crystals

  NSF · $565k · 2013–2017

• EAGER: Develop Robust Light-Scattering Computational Capability Based on the Method of Separation of Variables in Spheroidal Coordinates for Small-to-Large Spheroids

  NSF · $200k · 2021–2023

Frequent coauthors

• Bryan A. Baum

  Science and Technology Corporation (United States)

  140 shared

• George W. Kattawar

  Texas A&M University

  132 shared

• Yongxiang Hu

  Langley Research Center

  75 shared

• Steven Platnick

  Goddard Space Flight Center

  68 shared

• Patrick Minnis

  Northern Health and Social Care Trust

  61 shared

• Michael D. King

  University of Colorado Boulder

  56 shared

• K. N. Liou

  53 shared

• Lei Bi

  Zhejiang University

  44 shared

Education

• Ph.D., Department of Meteorology

  University of Utah

  1995

• M.S.

  Lanzhou Institute of Plateau Atmospheric Physics, Chinese Academy of Science

  1988

Awards & honors

• Fellow, the American Geophysical Union (AGU)
• Fellow, OPTICA (formerly, the Optical Society of America, OS…
• Fellow, the American Meteorological Society (AMS)
• Fellow, the American Physical Society (APS)
• Fellow, the American Association for the Advancement of Scie…

Similar researchers at Texas A&M University

• Renyi Zhangh-106
• Andrew Desslerh-60
• R. Saravananh-51