Research Interests:

Dr. Weng is a leading expert in developing various NOAA operational satellite microwave products and algorithms such as the Special Sensor Microwave Imager (SSM/I) and the Advanced Microwave Sounding Unit (AMSU) cloud and precipitation algorithms, land surface temperature and emissivity algorithms. These products are increasingly being utilized by the international communities to validate the numerical weather prediction model outputs and provide real-time monitoring of various severe weather events.

Dr. Weng has contributed extraordinarily to the advances in satellite data assimilation. He developed a comprehensive technique for simulating microwave land, snow and sea ice emissivity. These emissivity models have significantly improved uses of satellite sounding data in models and have impacted the high latitude weather forecasts.

Dr. Weng is developing innovative techniques to advance uses of satellite measurements under cloudy and precipitating areas in models. As a doctoral advisor at the University of Maryland, he has supervised students on using satellite microwave measurements from NOAA operational satellites in mesoscale models. He developed a new initialization for hurricane simulation models, using satellite-derived profiles of temperature and water vapor. His method yields balanced fields of atmospheric mass and motion. The technique can now replace the bogus method in hurricane forecast models.