Ronald B. Smith (born June 15, 1944) is an American atmospheric scientist and professor emeritus of Earth and Planetary Sciences at Yale University. His research has focused on mountain meteorology, atmospheric dynamics, orographic precipitation, atmospheric gravity waves, regional climate, remote sensing, isotope hydrology and wind-energy meteorology.

Smith joined Yale in 1976 and retired from the faculty in 2020. He held the Damon Wells Professorship of Geology and Geophysics and chaired the Department of Geology and Geophysics from 1991 to 1997. In 2011, the American Meteorological Society awarded him the Jule G. Charney Award for contributions to understanding the influence of mountains on the atmosphere.

Early life and education

Smith was born in Rochester, New York, on June 15, 1944. He received a Bachelor of Aeronautical Engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in 1966, a Master of Science from Princeton University in 1969, and a Ph.D. from Johns Hopkins University in 1975.

Academic career

Before and during his early years at Yale, Smith held teaching and research appointments at the United States Naval Academy, the University of Colorado Boulder, and the University of Oslo.

He joined Yale's Department of Geology and Geophysics as an assistant professor in 1976 and became an associate professor in 1979. He later became the Damon Wells Professor of Geology and Geophysics and served as department chair from 1991 to 1997.

The Yale Center for Earth Observation was established in 1992. Smith served as its director from then until 2017 when Prof. Xuhui Lee succeeded him.

Smith was a member of the Board of Trustees of the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research from 1997 to 2003. Smith also held adjunct appointments in mechanical engineering and in Yale's School of Forestry and Environmental Studies. In 2011, Smith taught the Yale College course "The Atmosphere, the Ocean, and Environmental Change", which was recorded for Open Yale Courses. He became professor emeritus in 2020.

Research

Smith's research has centered on the effects of mountains on atmospheric flow, weather and climate. His work has combined theoretical studies with observations from aircraft, satellites and field campaigns.

In 1979, he published "The Influence of Mountains on the Atmosphere" in Advances in Geophysics, a review of mountain-induced atmospheric processes. His later research addressed mountain waves, severe downslope winds, airflow blocking, lee cyclogenesis and mountain drag.

Smith and Idar Barstad developed a linear model of orographic precipitation that incorporated airflow dynamics, condensed-water transport and evaporation. Their paper, "A Linear Theory of Orographic Precipitation", was published in the Journal of the Atmospheric Sciences in 2004.

Smith led or participated in a number of atmospheric field programs. He co-directed the special observing period of the Mesoscale Alpine Programme in 1999 and was lead scientist during the Dominica Experiment in 2011. The Dominica Experiment investigated tropical orographic precipitation on the Caribbean island of Dominica.

He was also a co-principal investigator and mission scientist in the 2014 Deep Propagating Gravity Wave Experiment (DEEPWAVE), conducted in and around New Zealand. The project examined the generation and propagation of atmospheric gravity waves from the lower atmosphere into the middle atmosphere.

In 2019, Smith published "100 Years of Progress on Mountain Meteorology Research" in Meteorological Monographs, reviewing developments in mountain meteorology over the preceding century.

Smith has also worked on wind-energy meteorology. His later publications include studies of wind-farm efficiency, atmospheric pressure fields produced by wind farms and the role of the Coriolis force in wind-farm wake recovery.

Honors and awards

Smith was elected a Fellow of the American Meteorological Society in 2003.

In 2010, he received the American Meteorological Society's Mountain Meteorology Award for observational and theoretical research on orographic flows.

In 2011, he received the Jule G. Charney Award for his research on the influence of mountains on the atmosphere.

In 2012, Smith received the Harwood F. Byrnes/Richard B. Sewall Teaching Prize from Yale College.

Selected publications

Smith, Ronald B. (1979). "The Influence of Mountains on the Atmosphere". Advances in Geophysics. 21: 87–230. . Smith, Ronald B. (1980). "Linear theory of stratified hydrostatic flow past an isolated mountain". Tellus. 32: 348–364. Smith, Ronald B. (1984). "A Theory of Lee Cyclogenesis". Journal of the Atmospheric Sciences. 41 (7): 1159–1168. . Smith, Ronald B. (1985). "On Severe Downslope Winds". Journal of the Atmospheric Sciences. 42 (23): 2597–2603. . Smith, Ronald B. (1987). "Aerial Observations of the Yugoslavian Bora". Journal of the Atmospheric Sciences. 44 (2): 269–297. . Smith, Ronald B.; Grubišić, Vanda (1993). "Aerial Observations of Hawaii's Wake". Journal of the Atmospheric Sciences. 50 (22): 3728–3750. . He, Hui; Smith, Ronald B. (1999). "Stable isotope composition of water vapor in the atmospheric boundary layer above the forests of New England". Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres. 104 (D9): 11657–11673. . Smith, Ronald B.; Barstad, Idar (2004). "A Linear Theory of Orographic Precipitation". Journal of the Atmospheric Sciences. 61 (12): 1377–1391. . Zaitchik, Benjamin F.; Macalady, Alison K.; Bonneau, Laurent R.; Smith, Ronald B. (2006). "Europe's 2003 heat wave: a satellite view of impacts and land–atmosphere feedbacks". International Journal of Climatology. 26 (6): 743–769. . Smith, Ronald B.; Evans, Jason P. (2007). "Orographic Precipitation and Water Vapor Fractionation over the Southern Andes". Journal of Hydrometeorology. 8 (1): 3–19. . Smith, Ronald B.; Minder, Justin R.; Nugent, Alison D.; et al. (2012). "Orographic Precipitation in the Tropics: The Dominica Experiment". Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society. 93 (10): 1567–1579. . Smith, Ronald B.; Nugent, Alison D.; Kruse, Christopher G.; et al. (2016). "Stratospheric Gravity Wave Fluxes and Scales during DEEPWAVE". Journal of the Atmospheric Sciences. 73 (7): 2851–2869. . Hu, Tangao; Smith, Ronald B. (2018). "The Impact of Hurricane Maria on the Vegetation of Dominica and Puerto Rico Using Multispectral Remote Sensing". Remote Sensing. 10 (6): 827. . Smith, Ronald B. (2019). "100 Years of Progress on Mountain Meteorology Research". Meteorological Monographs. 59: 20.1–20.73. . Smith, Ronald B.; Gribben, Brian J. (2026). "Coriolis recovery of wind farm wakes". Wind Energy Science. 11: 233–249. .

References

External links

Ronald Smith at Yale University