I liked how Hongli Jiang explained “scale-aware” physics parameterizations using her office and a printer as an example. She has always been excited about physics and atmospheric sciences, and wanted to make sure I understood the concept. If you have a large grid box the size of your office, the size of your printer is insignificant in that space. If the grid box is the size of your desk, the size of the printer now impacts that space, and you need to include the printer in your description of your desk. Hongli is from Tianjin, a large port city near Beijing.
Hongli has been a CIRA Research Scientist for 21 years. After working in the ESRL/Chemical Sciences Division with aerosol and cloud modeling, she wanted to change her focus to she has work with the real-time cloud-scale modeling on 0-3 hour time scales. Now she is working with longer time scales - out to 48 hours. Her role in the DTC is in the Global Modeling Testbed working with the NGGPS to test several suites of physics. Lately they have been test cases for 3 months in the winter and 3 months in the summer to use as a benchmark.
Away from the office, Hongli loves to be outdoors, and volunteers in Longmont’s “Clean-Up Green Up” campaign to make area parks, trails and open spaces more beautiful. She also likes to travel and experience the contrasts of different regions such as the Pacific Northwest rainforests compared with New York City - both are full of life, just different kinds. Indoors, she enjoys classical music and live productions--witnessing the Berlin Philharmonic in person was a dream-come-true.
