Dr David Low

Dr David Low

Lecturer
BSc PhD Adelaide, MAIP, MAMOS, MAGU

School of Physical, Environmental and Mathematical Sciences
UNSW @ ADFA
Canberra ACT 2600
AUSTRALIA

Phone: +61 2 6268 8739
Fax: +61 2 6268 8786
Email: d.low@adfa.edu.au
Location: PEMS Sth, Room 121a

Research Interests:
The algorithmic extraction of useful parameters (temperature, moisture, turbulence, etc) from atmospheric echoes: the process of modelling what contributes to electromagnetic and acoustic echoes from the atmosphere, and separating the individual contributions from each other.

Instrumental comparisons: how different sensors see the same parcel of air in different ways. In particular, how turbulence is seen by different instruments.

Lower Atmosphere Research Group - Monitoring the atmospheric boundary layer

Science Education - Physics Education

Biography

I obtained my degrees (PhD 1996) from the University of Adelaide, with honours and doctoral work in radar studies of the lower atmosphere on the Buckland Park VHF radar with Bob Vincent and Iain Reid. Most of this work looked at the upper troposphere, pretty evenly split between VHF radar performance characteristics (Low et al., Proc. 8th Int. MST Workshop pp 294-297, 1998) and mesoscale meteorology (Griffiths et al., QJRMS vol. 124 pp 1109-1132, 1998).

I then spent two years (1996-1997) as a postdoc at the Radio Atmospheric Science Center of Kyoto University (subsequently called the Radio Science Center for Space and Atmosphere, and now part of the scarily-named Research Institute for a Sustainable Humanosphere), working on the MU radar with Toshitaka Tsuda. I looked at extracting tropospheric turbulence parameters with a novel combination of radar and acoustics (the Radio Acoustic Sounding System, or RASS) (Low et al., Met. Zeit. vol. 7 pp 345-354, 1998), and explored how one might determine atmospheric moisture profiles from the radar/RASS combination (Low and Tsuda, Proc. 5th Int. Sym. on Tropospheric Profiling pp 101-103, 2000).

I started at UNSW@ADFA in 1998, working with John Taylor in the Lower Atmosphere Research Group on radar and sodar studies of the boundary layer. We have developed an integrated observing system, combining mini-sodars, sodars and UHF profiler (Taylor et al., Bull. Aust. Meteorol. Ocean. Soc. vol. 13 pp 111-116, 2000), and applied this system to measurements of boundary layer stability (Taylor et al., Meteorol. Atmos. Phys. vol. 85 pp 101-113, 2004), mesoscale model verification (Taylor et al., Proc. 16th AIP Congress, 2005) and studying surge-like intrusions propagating from the coast through Canberra to Wagga Wagga (Taylor et al., Aust. Met. Mag., submitted 2005). Thanks to a $500,000 ARC Discovery Grant (DP0558793), we installed two sodars at Weipa in Far North Queensland during September-December 2005 (looking at convection initiated by the convergence of east-coast and west-coast seabreezes). Most recently, we operated a sodar at Normanton (near the south-eastern corner of the Gulf of Carpentaria in Queensland), studying the Morning Glory phenomenon.

Teaching

As part of the Physics major, I taught the second year Physics waves and electromagnetism course from 1998-2004; and the second year Physics meteorology course from 1999-2004. I will teach the third year Physics atmospheric dynamics course for the first time in 2005.

I have taught the meteorology service course to the B.Tech (Aero) degree from 1998 to the present, and the first session meteorology service course for the B. Tech (Aviation) degree since its inception in 2002 (co-developed with Alistair Drake, who teaches the second session course). The meteorology service courses were opened up to fourth year B. Eng (Civil, Aero, Mech) students in 2001 as an elective.

I was Convenor of the First Year Physics Teaching Laboratory over 2000-2006, responsible for the design, development and coordination of the first year laboratory program to both Physics major and Engineering service courses. The Physics and Electrical Engineering streams (which comprise eight 3-hour sessions) run "cafeteria" style - a self-paced, open-choice, accumulation-style laboratory experience. The Engineering stream involves four 3-hour experiments. All streams have access to pre-lab quizzes in the WebCT online learning environment to help with their preparation; and all experiments have a Checkpoint marking/feedback scheme which allows for (near-)continuous assessment. The thrust of the first year Physics laboratory is "experimental science as a field in its own right", and while most experiments support particular lecture/theory themes, there are a number of stand-alone experiments.

I'm active in teaching-related research, primarily though the Physics Education Group (PEG) of the Australian Institute of Physics (AIP). I chaired the Education Program Subcommittee for the 16th AIP Congress (Canberra, 2005), and have been PEG's ACT representative since 2002. I am a Working Party member of the Learning Outcomes and Curriculum Development in Physics project, which was funded to the tune of $160,000 over 2004-2005 by the Carrick Institute (formerly the Australian Universities Teaching Committee (AUTC)).

Stage 1 of the AUTC project has been published as a commissioned report.

Research

Lower atmosphere profiling (wind, temperature, humidity); VHF/UHF radar wind profilers; radio acoustic sounding (RASS); radar meteorology; mesoscale meteorology; frontal dynamics; gravity waves; turbulence.

In particular, I'm fascinated by the extraction of useful parameters from atmospheric echoes: that is, the process of modelling what contributes to echoes, and separating them from each other. I guess this is one step deeper than the "inverse problem" (extracing refractive index variations from ray paths): I'm interested in extracting the individuals contributions to the refractive index variations due to (e.g.) temperature and moisture, as well as quantifying the degree of turbulent variation, in atmospheric profiles. Related to this interest is instrumental comparisions: how different sensors see the same parcel of air in different ways. Most recently, I've been interested in how turbulence is seen by different instruments - a subject that was explored by Marija Jovanovich in her honours thesis (2004), which I co-supervised. Past work is described in the Biography section.

Recently, the Australian Research Council awarded $500,000 (DP0558793) to myself and collaborators (Michael Reeder and Simon Clarke [Monash], Greg Holland [Aerosonde/NASA Goddard] and Roger Smith [Munich]) to explore "Predicting Organised Tropical Convection" over 2005-2007. We plan to install the UNSW@ADFA profilers at Weipa in Far North Queensland during December 2005, to study the Northern Australian Cloud Line.

My other love is what might be termed "small science": the sort of project you could give to a third-year student and expect them to achieve a useful and/or novel result. Examples of previous projects I've sponsored include:

relating southern-hemisphere Earthshine to northern-hemisphere cloudiness (and potentially monitoring climate change);
using a VLF receiver to study distant thunderstorms;
the development of a perimeter-watch device using a digital camera and sequential image subtraction;
modelling the ascent rate of balloons through the atmosphere;
investigating long-term meteorological records for statistical "oddities" (first-glance non-intuitive results - e.g., the first or last day of the week is more likely to be the warmest day of the week...regardless of which day you define the week to start on!).

If you're after more than just the executive summary, you can have a look at research projects that I've got simmering away.

Collaborators

Simon Clarke, Monash-U
Greg Holland, Aerosonde Pty. Ltd and NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
David Mills, Monash-U
Michael Reeder, Monash-U
Iain Reid, U-Adelaide
Manjula Sharma, U-Sydney
Roger Smith, U-Munich
John Taylor, UNSW@ADFA
Toshitaka Tsuda, Kyoto-U
Bob Vincent, U-Adelaide
Kate Wilson, ANU
Mario Zadnik, Curtin-U

Select Publications

"The Changing Nature of Students: Implications for Teaching", David Low, Kate Wilson and Marjan Zadnik, being Chapter 3 of "Learning Outcomes and Curriculum Development in Physics: a report on tertiary physics learning and teaching in Australia commissioned by the Australian Universities Teaching Committee", editors Manjula Sharma, David Mills, Alberto Mendez and Judith Pollard; published by the School of Physics, Monash University, Victoria 3800, February 2005; ISBN 0-7326-2063-5; available online at: http://www.physics.usyd.edu.au/super/AUTC/autc/.

"Summertime easterly surges in southeastern Australia: a case study of thermally forced flow", John R. Taylor, Meinholf Kossmann, David J. Low and Peyman Zawar-Reza, Australian Meteorological Magazine, 54, 213-223 (2005)

"Verification of a mesoscale model using boundary layer wind profiler data", John R. Taylor, Peyman Zawar-Reza,
David J. Low and Pramod Aryal, Proceedings of the 16th Australian Institute of Physics Congress, Canberra, Australia, 31 Jan - 4 Feb 2005, ed. Max Colla, ISBN 0-9598064-8-2.

"Remote Sensing of the Dynamic Stability of the Atmospheric Boundary Layer", John R. Taylor, David J. Low and
Garry J. Woods, Meteorology and Atmospheric Physics, 85, 101-113 (January 2004).

"Remote Sensing from the Ground Up: A High-Resolution View of the Boundary ", John R. Taylor, David J. Low, Pramod Aryal and Garry J. Woods, Bulletin of the Australian Meteorological and Oceanographic Society, 13, 111-116 (December 2000).

"Humidity profiling with wind profiler and RASS alone?", David J. Low and Toshitaka Tsuda, Proceedings of the 5th International Symposium on Tropospheric Profiling: Needs and Technologies, Adelaide, Australia, 4-8 December 2000,
pp 101-103.

"MU radar-RASS measurements of tropospheric turbulence parameters", David J. Low , Tatsuhiro Adachi and Toshitaka Tsuda, Meteorologische Zeitschrift, 7, 345-354 (December 1998).

"Observations of the interaction between a cut-off low and a subtropical front over southern Australia", Morwenna Griffiths, Michael J. Reeder, David J. Low and Robert A. Vincent, Quarterly Journal of the Royal Meteorological Society, 124, 1109-1132 (April 1998).

Publications

Book Chapters

"Snapshots: good learning and teaching in physics in Australian universities", A. Mendez, S. Feteris, L. Kirkup, M. Livett, D. Low, A. Merchant, D. Mills, J. Pollard, A. Rayner, M. Sharma, G. Swan, K. Wilson and M. Zadnik, ISBN 0-7326-2064-3, 28pp (2005); available online at: http://www.physics.usyd.edu.au/super/AUTC/

Refereed Papers

"What does a physics undergraduate education give you? A perspective from Australian physics", Manjula Sharma, Judith Pollard, Alberto Mendez, David Mills, John O’Byrne, Dale Scott, Sue Hagon, Joan Gribble, Les Kirkup, Michelle Livett, David Low, Alex Merchant, Anton Rayner, Geoff Swan, Marjan Zadnik and William Zealey, European Journal of Physics, 29, 59—72 (2008).

"Summertime easterly surges in southeastern Australia: a case study of thermally forced flow", John R. Taylor, Meinholf Kossmann, David J. Low and Peyman Zawar-Reza, Australian Meteorological Magazine, 54, 213-223 (2005)

"Verification of a mesoscale model using boundary layer wind profiler data", John R. Taylor, Peyman Zawar-Reza,
David J. Low and Pramod Aryal Proceedings of the 16th Australian Institute of Physics Congress, Canberra, Australia, 31 Jan - 4 Feb 2005, ed. Max Colla, ISBN 0-9598064-8-2.

"Remote Sensing of the Dynamic Stability of the Atmospheric Boundary Layer", John R. Taylor, David J. Low and
Garry J. Woods, Meteorology and Atmospheric Physics, 85, 101-113 (January 2004).

"Flexible teaching initiatives in Physics at ADFA", David J. Low, V. Alistair Drake and Peter Lynam, Moving Online: A Conference to Explore the Challenges for Workplaces, Colleges and Universities, Ed. by M. Wallace, A. Ellis and D. Newton, Southern Cross University Press, Lismore, Australia, 312pp; 119-129 (August 2000).

"MU radar-RASS measurements of tropospheric turbulence parameters", David J. Low, Tatsuhiro Adachi and
Toshitaka Tsuda, Meteorologische Zeitschrift, 7, 345-354 (December 1998).

Unrefereed Papers and Extended Abstracts

"Australian physics bachelors and honours graduates in industry: where are they? How well prepared are they?", A. Mendez, J. Pollard, M.D. Sharma, D.R. Mills, S.J. Gribble, Sue Hagon, L. Kirkup, M. Livett, D. Low, A. Merchant, J. O’Byrne, A. Rayner, G. Swan, M. Zadnik and W. Zealey, Australian Physics, 45(1), 21-24 (January/February 2008).

"Sodar diagnosis of mesoscale boundary layer convergence", John R. Taylor, David J. Low and Michael J. Reeder, 13th International Symposium for the Advancement of Boundary Layer Remote Sensing (ISARS), Germany, July 18-20, 2006.

"Sodar spectra at low levels in the stable nocturnal boundary layer", John R. Taylor, Marija Jovanovich and David J. Low, 13th International Symposium for the Advancement of Boundary Layer Remote Sensing (ISARS), Germany, July 18-20, 2006.

"Is near enough good enough? Verification of a mesoscale numerical model with sodar and wind profiler data",
John R. Taylor, Peyman Zawar-Reza, David J. Low and Pramod Aryal, 12th International Symposium on Acoustic
Remote Sensing and Associated Techniques of the Atmosphere and Oceans, Cambridge, UK, 11-16 July 2004.

"Can sodar and RASS measure dynamic stability in the nocturnal boundary layer?", John R. Taylor, David J. Low and Garry J. Woods, Proceedings of the 11th International Symposium on Acoustic Remote Sensing and Associated Techniques of the Atmosphere and Oceans, Rome, Italy, 24-28 June 2002, pp 251-254.

"Remote Sensing from the Ground Up: A High-Resolution View of the Boundary Layer", John R. Taylor, David J. Low, Pramod Aryal and Garry J. Woods, Bulletin of the Australian Meteorological and Oceanographic Society, 13, 111-116 (December 2000).

"Testing an integrated boundary layer profiling system", David J. Low, John R. Taylor and Pramod Aryal, Proceedings of the 5th International Symposium on Tropospheric Profiling: Needs and Technologies, Adelaide, Australia, 4-8 December 2000, pp 297-299.

"Wind profiling with an integrated acoustic and electromagnetic system", John R. Taylor, David J. Low and Pramod Aryal, Proceedings of the 10th International Symposium on Acoustic Remote Sensing and Associated Techniques, Auckland, New Zealand, 27 November-1 December 2000, pp 23-26.

"Predicting VHF wind profiler performance from (p,T,q) soundings", David J. Low, Iain M. Reid, Robert A. Vincent and Peter T. May, Proceedings of the 8th International Workshop on Technical and Scientific Aspects of MST Radar, Bangalore, India, 15-20 December 1997, pp 294-297 (pub. July 1998).

"MU radar-RASS measurements of tropospheric turbulence parameters", David J. Low, Tatsuhiro Adachi and Toshitaka Tsuda, Proceedings of the 8th International Workshop on Technical and Scientific Aspects of MST Radar, Bangalore, India, 15-20 December 1997, pp 255-258 (pub. July 1998).

"Radar echo power used in the determination of height profiles of water vapour", Toshitaka Tsuda, David J. Low and Masaki Miyamoto, GPS Meteorology Workshop, Disaster Prevention Research Institute, Kyoto University, November 1997.

"Predicting VHF wind profiler performance from (p,T,q) soundings", David J. Low, Iain M. Reid, Robert A. Vincent and Peter T. May, Proceedings of the COST-76 Profiler Workshop, Engelberg, Switzerland, May 1997, pp 375-378.

"Detailed time-height variations of wind velocity and temperature profiles observed with RASS", Toshitaka Tsuda, Tatsuhiro Adachi, David J. Low and Yoshihisa Masuda, Proceedings of the COST-76 Profiler Workshop, Engelberg, Switzerland, May 1997, pp 142-145.

"Observations of gravity waves accompanying the passage of cold fronts", David J. Low, Robert A. Vincent, Morwenna Griffiths, and Michael J. Reeder, 4th International Conference on Southern Hemisphere Meteorology and Oceanography, Hobart, Australia, 29 March-2 April 1993, Preprint Volume pp 234-235.

Conference Papers and Abstracts

"Sodar observations of organized flows in tropical northern Australia", John R. Taylor, David J. Low and Michael J. Reeder, 14th National Conference of the Australian Meteorological and Oceanographic Society, Adelaide, 5—8 February 2007.

"Retrieval errors in spectral parameters estimated by gaussian fitting", Barbara A. Burns, John Taylor and David Low, 13th National Conference of the Australian Meteorological and Oceanographic Society, Newcastle, 6—8 February 2006.

"Measuring turbulence with Doppler sodars", John Taylor, Marija Jovanovich and David Low, 13th National Conference of the Australian Meteorological and Oceanographic Society, Newcastle, 6—8 February 2006.
"Back to the future: cafeteria laboratories in first year physics", David J. Low, 16th National Congress of the Australian Institute of Physics, Canberra, Australia, 31 Jan - 4 Feb 2005.

"Online teaching approaches at ADFA", David J. Low, V. Alistair Drake and Peter Lynam, 14th National Congress of the Australian Institute of Physics, Adelaide, Australia, 10-15 December 2000.

"Making air visible: laboratory experiments in fluid dynamics", David J. Low and John R. Taylor, 14th National Congress of the Australian Institute of Physics, Adelaide, Australia, 10-15 December 2000.

"Radar-RASS profiling during mesoscale passages", David J. Low, Dennis Riggin and Toshitaka Tsuda, 7th National Australian Meteorological and Oceanographic Society Conference, Melbourne, Australia, February 2000, p 75.

"Testing an integrated boundary layer profiling system", John Taylor, David Low, Garry Woods and Pramod Aryal, 7th National Australian Meteorological and Oceanographic Society Conference, Melbourne, Australia, February 2000, p 113.

"MU radar-RASS measurements of tropospheric turbulence parameters", David J. Low, Tatsuhiro Adachi and Toshitaka Tsuda, 6th National Australian Meteorological and Oceanographic Society Conference, Canberra, Australia, February 1999, p 51.

"Estimating water content profiles with radar-RASS", David J. Low and Toshitaka Tsuda, 8th International Workshop on Technical and Scientific Aspects of MST Radar, Bangalore, India, 15-20 December 1997, abstract MT-38, p 118.

"Tropospheric moisture profiling by radar-RASS", David J. Low and Toshitaka Tsuda, 102nd Meeting of the Society of Geomagnetism and Earth, Planetary and Space Sciences, Hokkaido, Japan, 2-5 October 1997, A42-10.

"Multimode observations of atmospheric structure with the MU radar and RASS'", David J. Low, Tatsuhiro Adachi and Toshitaka Tsuda, 70th Symposium of the Meteorological Society of Japan, Nagoya, Japan, November 1996.

"MU radar/RASS and JANAL fields applied to mesoscale observations", Yosuke Habiro, Tatsuhiro Adachi, David J. Low and Toshitaka Tsuda, 70th Symposium of the Meteorological Society of Japan, Nagoya, Japan, November 1996.

"High resolution observations of a cut-off low during SAFEx-August 1992", Morwenna Griffiths, Michael J. Reeder,
David J. Low, and Robert A. Vincent, 2nd National Australian Meteorological and Oceanographic Society Conference,
Lorne, Australia, 20-22 February 1995.

"VHF radar observations of gravity wave activity associated with cold fronts", David J. Low, Robert A. Vincent, and Michael J. Reeder, Cooperative Research Centre for Southern Hemisphere Meteorology Stratospheric Modelling Workshop, Melbourne, Australia, 28-30 September 1994.

"A comparison of VHF spaced antenna winds with Marwinsonde retrievals", David J. Low, and Robert A. Vincent, 1st National Australian Meteorological and Oceanographic Society Conference, Adelaide, Australia, 14-16 February
1994.

"An examination of the reflectivity, wind and (T,q) fields around cold fronts", David J. Low, 1st National Australian Meteorological and Oceanographic Society Conference, Adelaide, Australia, 14-16 February 1994.

"Cold fronts as a source of gravity waves: VHF radar observations", David J. Low and Robert A. Vincent, 1st National Australian Meteorological and Oceanographic Society Conference, Adelaide, Australia, 14-16 February 1994.

"An evaluation of VHF wind profiler performance from (p,T,q) profiles", David J. Low and Iain M. Reid, 1st National Australian Meteorological and Oceanographic Society Conference, Adelaide, Australia, 14-16 February 1994.

"VHF radar observations of the tropopause", David J. Low, 3rd Australasian Conference on the Physics of Remote Sensing of Atmosphere and Oceans, Melbourne, Australia, 10-14 February 1992.