I am currently a third-year Ph.D student studying atmospheric science at the Department of Atmospheric and Planetary Science, Hampton University. I received my Bachelor degree in Physics in 2001 from NingXia University, China and Master degree in Optics in 2004 from Anhui Institute of Optics & Fine Mechanics (AIOFM), Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS). I have do research about measurement of aerodynamic diameter of aerosol particles during the studying of my master degree. After graduate from AIOFM, I have 7 years experience working as a lecture in Hefei University of Technology (HFUT). I have do research about measurement of surface roughness from laser speckles with texture Analysis  in HFUT. In fall 2013, I enrolled into PhD program in atmospheric science, Hampton University and was lucky to have Dr. McCormick as my advisor.

My research in Hampton University focused on the detection of aerosol in the lower part of atmosphere using ground based HU 48 inch lidar. I tried to use fractal dimension method on aerosol measurement, especially on the planetary boundary layer (PBL) height detection.  PBL is the important link between the earth’s surface and the free atmosphere. Momentum, heat and water vapor from the surface must move through the PBL before being available to affect atmospheric circulation. Determination of the PBL heights and the PBL structure is very important in this respect. Since HU 48 inch lidar has 3 three-wavelength backscatter signals, it could be sued to calculate the fractal dimension (FD) which could be used to get PBL height. The PBL heights obtained from fractal dimension of three-wavelength lidar signals is compared with PBL heights obtained from the potential temperature profiles which are provided by balloon data. And results of the two methods agree well. Moreover, fractal dimension method can reduce the influence of the geometrical form factor on the PBL detecting to expand the detecting range of PBL and remove the effect of plume.