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Collaborators. Throughout my journey, I have been extremely fortunate to be able to work with some of the kindest and brilliant research minds: Anita Rapp, Chris Nowotarski, Dan Dawson, Eric Bruning, Kristin Calhoun, Robin Tanamachi (in alphabetical order).
Full list of Publications:
2024
- A Unique Inter-Agency Collaboration and Weather Forecasting Exercise to support the TRACER+ Field Experiments near Houston, Texas
Siddhant Gupta, ..., Milind Sharma, and others.
In preparation for submission to Bulletin of American Meteorological Society. - Spatially distributed atmospheric boundary layer properties in Houston – Best estimate observational dataset
Katia Lamer, ..., Milind Sharma, and others.
Submitted to Nature Scientific Data. - An overview of the TAMU TRACER field campaign
Anita D. Rapp, Sarah D. Brooks, Christopher J. Nowotarski, Milind Sharma, and others.
Submitted to Bulletin of American Meteorological Society. - Observed variability in thunderstorm characteristics and near-storm environments across the sea-breeze front in Southeast Texas during the DOE TRACER field campaign
Milind Sharma, Anita D. Rapp, Christopher J. Nowotarski
Conditionally accepted: AMS Monthly Weather Review. - Investigating temporal characteristics of polarimetric and electrical signatures in severe storms: Insights from the VORTEX-Southeast field campaign
Milind Sharma, Robin L. Tanamachi, Eric C. Bruning
In press: AMS Monthly Weather Review.
1 min pitch!
Convection associated with the inland propagation of the SBF typically peaked between 1400 and 1500 LT. Over 70% of the total tracked cells between 1100 and 1900 LT had a lifetime of 45 minutes or less. Specifically, shallow cells had a median lifetime of 24 minutes, while transitioning cells had a median lifetime of 49 minutes. Cells initiating between 1000 and 1200 LT demonstrated the maximum cell area and 20-dBZ echo-top height. Two major CI hotspots were observed: one located directly to the east of downtown Houston (and the AMF1 site) and the other southwest of Houston (directly above the ANC site).The composite environmental profile for the TAMU site was found to be the driest in the upper boundary layer and lower free troposphere (950-700 hPa layer) in the early afternoon (maritime air mass) and mid-levels (600-400 hPa layer) in the late afternoon (continental air mass), respectively. Additionally, a drier boundary layer in the late afternoon led to lower ML CAPE in the continental air mass.
The composite reflectivity of shallow and transitioning clouds followed a consistent temporal trend across air masses. Shallow clouds experienced the largest difference in mean composite reflectivity, with cells initiating close to SBF having the highest reflectivity values (41-44 dBZ), followed by maritime (36-40 dBZ) and continental (30-35 dBZ) cells. The distinction was less clear for transitioning cells, but still followed a similar pattern. The time series of mean composite 20-dBZ echo-top height exhibited significant overlap across air masses for both shallow and transitioning clouds.
Composite reflectivity of transitioning cells from CSAPR2 vertical profiles was found to be slightly larger than that from NEXRAD. Additionally, maritime cells in CSAPR2 data were qualitatively weaker, when comparing the reflectivity and differential reflectivity profiles.
Five environmental variables exhibited statistically significant differences in mean values between maritime and continental environments associated with transitioning cells. These variables include ML ECAPE, ML LCL, ML LFC, diluted EL, and PBL depth. Among shallow cells, TPW was the sole environmental variable with a significant difference between maritime and continental air masses.
1 min pitch!
In all three cases, KDP column volume outperformed ZDR column volume as a predictor of total lightning flash rate. The contrast with findings from an isolated tornadic supercell over the Great Plains, where a stronger correlation was observed between the ZDR column volume and flash rate, highlights the significance of the current study.The early stages of storm life cycle, marked by more steady updrafts, showed a monotonic increase in the ZDR column volume and total flash rate. However, as the updrafts transitioned to a non-steady state later on, they became less effective at vertical size sorting and recirculation of supercooled cloud condensate. This led to reduced correlation between the ZDR column volume and total flash rate.
The stronger correlation between the KDP column volume and total flash rate suggests a higher contribution of partially melted ice and/or wet/mixed-phase hydrometeors in storm electrification. The relatively shallow warm cloud depth of these storms, compared to the EC storm in Oklahoma, likely increased the influence of cold cloud processes on ice and graupel growth, thereby modulating total flash rates.
The peak CG and total flash rates in the tornadic and nontornadic supercells were observed to coincide with the descent of precipitation shafts that transported melting graupel or hail to the surface. Furthermore, there was a notable increase in the bi-level VHF source density during these periods, indicating a direct role of charge advection in the creation of electric potential wells that facilitate the propagation of lightning discharges.
2022
- The Relationship Between Cloud Microphysics and Electrification in Southeast US Storms Investigated Using Polarimetric, Cold Pool, and Lightning Characteristics
Milind Sharma
Purdue University Graduate School. Thesis
2021
- Polarimetric and electrical structure of the 19 May 2013 Edmond–Carney, Oklahoma, tornadic supercell
Milind Sharma, Robin L. Tanamachi, Eric C. Bruning, Kristin M. Calhoun
In AMS Monthly Weather Review
1 min pitch!
The Edmond–Carney storm maintained an inverted polarity charge structure in its mature phase, during which it also produced at least two tornadoes.The ZDR columns attained maximum heights of up to 4 km and above around the same time as the lightning jumps. Deeper ZDR columns around this time also resulted in larger volumes extending at least 3 km (up to −20°C) above the melting level thereby validating the utility of ZDR columns as a proxy for mixed-phase updrafts.
Flashes occurring within ZDR column region were found to be 5 times more frequent and ~O(10) smaller than the flashes occurring outside. Both these results were statistically significant at 95% confidence level.
We showed that the highest flash rates were accompanied by deeper and wider updrafts early in the storm lifetime. Lower correlation between ZDR column volume and total flash rate between 2130 and 2230 UTC was likely because of limited penetration of ZDR columns above −10°C.
2018
- A Case Study of Kinematical, Microphysical, and Lightning Characteristics of a Tornadic Supercell
Milind Sharma et al.
AMS Severe Local Storms Conference Proceedings
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