Ph.D. Atmospheric Physics
My investigation focus on the effect of high relative humidity in aerosol particles. In ambient conditions, aerosol particles experience hygroscopic growth due to the influence of relative humidity (RH), scattering more light than when the particles are dry. The knowledge of RH on aerosol optical properties is of substantial importance when comparing ground-based observations with other optical aerosol measurements techniques such satellite and sunphotometric retrievals of aerosol optical depth and their inversions. In my research, ambient and laboratory generated particles are analyzed to retrieve optical parameters such, scattering coefficient, phase function and polarized phase function at different relative humidity levels. Besides the measurements performed at UMBC, the instrument has been deployed in the NASA DISCOVER-AQ campaigns (San Joaquin Valley CA and Golden CO).
Publications
- D. Orozco, R. Delgado, D. Wesloh, R. J. Powers, R. Hoff, “Aerosol particulate matter in the Baltimore metropolitan area: temporal variation over a six-year period”, Journal of the Air & Waste Management Association, 65, 1050-1061, 10.1080/10962247.2015.1067653, 2015.
- Orozco D., A. Beyersdorf, L. Ziemba, T. Berkoff, Q. Zhang, R. Delgado, C. Hennigan, and R. Hoff, Hygroscopic Measurements of Aerosol Particles in the San Joaquin Valley CA, Baltimore MD, and Golden CO, (under revision), Journal of Geophysical Research.
- Moshary, F., Cordero, L., Wu, Y., Gross, B., Orozco, D., Sawamura, P., \& McCormick, M. P. Assessment of long scale plume transport to the US East coast using coordinated CREST lidar network and synergistic AERONET and satellite measurements. Proc. SPIE 8894, Lidar Technologies, Techniques, and Measurements for Atmospheric Remote Sensing IX, 88940K , 2013.