Congratulations to GESTAR II Awardees from NASA Goddard's Code 613

Tue, 07 Apr 2026 17:17:29 -0400
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The Code 613 Peer Award Ceremony and Luncheon was held in early March at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Dr. Lazaros Oreopoulos, Chief of the Climate and Radiation Laboratory (613), announced the awardees, and a GESTAR II representative was on hand to present certificates.

For Best first-authored paper

Nayeong Cho (UMBC): “For a paper that introduces a new cloud classification that enables joint analysis with the most advanced monthly radiation datasets” - AMS Journal of Climate paper Describing seasonal mixtures of cloud regimes via “regimes of regimes”.

For Best first-authored paper

Surendra Bhatta (MSU): “For a paper advancing Antarctic surface mass balance research by adding ML-enabled blowing snow diagnosis to the MERRA-2 reanalysis” - AMS journal Artificial Intelligence for the Earth Systems paper Selection and Optimization of a Machine Learning Algorithm for Antarctic Blowing Snow Diagnosis Using MERRA-2 Reanalysis.

For Scientific Leadership

Jude Salinas (UMBC): “For leadership in interdisciplinary work that uses GNSS-RO to probe the Ionospheric E-region.”

For Mentorship

Yingxi Shi (UMBC): “For dedicated, enthusiastic and skillful mentorship of students across educational levels and backgrounds.”

For Outstanding Scientific Support

Yingxi Shi (UMBC) and Mijin Kim (MSU), Dark Target Team members, Group Award: “For excellence in developing, validating and delivering the Dark Target retrieval codes for MODIS, VIIRS and GEO-LEO.”

Colten Peterson (UMBC), Imager Cloud Team member, Group Award: “For successful rapid development, testing and delivery of the latest generation of MODIS and VIIRS cloud retrieval algorithms.”

Congratulations to Drs. Bhatta, Cho, Kim, Peterson, Salinas, and Shi!