Professor Emeritus Profile Image
Professor Emeritus Earth and Atmospheric Sciences manderson4@unl.edu 305 Bessey Hall

Understanding variations taking place in the climate system are important to our knowledge of the global climate system. Most of my research has focused on the climate and meteorology of polar regions, an area shown by computer models to experience extreme adjustments during climate change. One of my goals has been to monitor the onset of snow melt using passive microwave remote sensing to determine both spatial and temporal variations in snow-melt patterns. The timing of the melt is important, but so is an understanding of the changing atmospheric conditions that occur during the melt period.

I also have research interests in many of the local weather phenomena in the Great Plains and surrounding regions. These can be investigated by analyzing case studies and the developing local climatologies. Through graduate student projects, we have investigated thermodynamic characteristics of heavy snowfall over eastern Nebraska, precipitation regimes and their variations over the Great Plains, and aircraft icing conditions over North America. There are many outstanding questions for research. For example, why do certain geographic regions in Nebraska have higher numbers of tornadoes than other regions within the state? Numerous questions also exist concerning snowfall patterns throughout the region.

My teaching interests include courses in synoptic, mesoscale, and satellite meteorology as well as seminars dealing with such topics as mountain meteorology and climatology using meteorological computer technology and more recently, mesoscale processes and modeling.

Selected Publications

Walker,C.L.,  D. Steinkruger, P. Gholizadeh, S. Hasanzedah, M. R. Anderson, and B. Esmaeili: Developing a Department of Transportation Winter Severity Index. Journal of Applied Meteorology and Climatology, DOI: 10.1175/JAMC-D-18-0240.1.
 
Dao, B., S. Hasanzadeh, C. L. Walker, D. Steinkruger, B. Esmaeili, and M. R. Anderson, 2019: Current practices in measuring the performance of winter maintenance operations. Cold Regions Engineering, DOI: 10.1061/(ASCE)CR.1943-5495.0000191.
 
Walker, C. L., S. Hasanzadeh, B. Esmaeili, M. R. Anderson, and B. Dao, 2019: Developing A Winter Severity Index: A Critical Review. Cold Regions Science and Technology, 160, 139-149.  
 
Bliss, A.C. and M.R. Anderson, 2018: Arctic Sea Ice Melt Onset Timing from Passive Microwave- and Surface Air Temperature-based Methods, Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres, DOI: 10.1029/2018JD028676.
 
Walker, C.L. and M.R. Anderson, 2016: Cloud Impacts on Pavement Temperature and Shortwave Radiation, J. of Applied Meteorology and Climatology, 55(11), 2329–2347, DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1175/JAMC-D-16-0094.1.
 
Obermeier, H and M.R. Anderson, 2015: Verification and Analysis of Impact-Based Tornado Warnings in the Central Region of the National Weather Service, Electronic Journal of Severe Storms Meteorology, 10(1), 1-20.
 
Apke, J, D Neitfeld and M.R. Anderson, 2015: Environmental Analysis of GOES-R Proving Ground Convection Initiation Forecasting Algorithms, J. of Applied Meteorology and Climatology, 54(7), 1637-1662, DOI: 10.1175/JAMC-D-14-0190.1.

Education

Ph.D., 1985, University of Colorado-Boulder

Expertise Areas

Weather impacts, weather analysis and forecasting, winter weather, satellite remote sensing