B.S. (Atmospheric Sciences), 1979, University of California, Los Angeles
M.S. (Atmospheric Sciences), 1981, University of California, Los Angeles
Ph.D. (Atmospheric sciences), 1983, University of California, Los Angeles
Worked as an Air Quality Consulting Atmospheric Scientist and a Research Scientist at the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) before joining SUNY Albany in 1986.
Research Interests
Air pollution meteorology and atmospheric chemistry. Interactions
between larger-scale meteorology, clouds, and chemistry of atmosphere.
Clouds play important roles in atmospheric chemistry and climate, and yet their effects and feedbacks on tropospheric chemical and meteorological processes are poorly understood. Processes occurring in clouds influence our atmosphere through several mechanisms. Buoyantly-driven updrafts and downdrafts within clouds rapidly transport heat, water vapor, momentum, and pollutants between the lower and upper atmosphere. Precipitation produced by clouds rapidly removes water and other soluble contaminants from the atmosphere. Condensed water in clouds scatters radiation, reducing the rates of photochemical reactions in the lower troposphere, while also redirecting incoming solar radiation away from the Earth's surface. Aqueous-phase chemical reactions also occur in clouds, changing the chemical reactivity of the atmosphere.
The goal of our cloud research program is to quantify the influence of clouds on atmospheric chemistry, short-term meteorology, and climate using available cloud observations in conjunction with numerical models of cloud processes. Students are developing a group of numerical models that describe the chemical, microphysical, and dynamical aspects of clouds for various applications in atmospheric chemistry, meteorology, and climate.
Students in this program explore cloud microphysical processes including nucleation and growth of cloud droplets and precipitation, convective dynamics, and cloud chemistry. Current projects are exploring the parameterization of cloud-scale processes within larger-scale meteorology and climate models. We are also using sophisticated atmospheric chemical models to study the interactions between clouds and tropospheric chemistry.
Research projects are largely theoretical in nature, requiring students to develop programming, analysis, and presentation skills using numerical methods on supercomputers, desktop work stations, and micro-computers.
Selected Publications
"Minor Flux adjustment near mixing ratio extremes
for simplified yet highly accurate monotonic
calculation of tracer advection"
C. J. Walcek
Journal of Geophysical Research, 105, in press, 2000.
"A simple but accurate mass conservative, peak-preserving,
mixing ratio bounded advection algorithm with FORTRAN code"
C. J. Walcek and N. M. Aleksic
Atmospheric Environment, 32, 3863-3880, 1998.
"The Influence of aqueous-phase chemical reactions on
ozone formation in polluted and nonpolluted clouds"
C. J. Walcek, H. H. Yuan and W. R. Stockwell
Atmospheric Environment, 31, 1221-1237, 1997.
"Calculated influence of temperature-related factors on
ozone formation rates in the lower troposphere"
C. J. Walcek, H. H. Yuan
Journal of Applied Meteorology, 34, 1056-1069, 1997.
"Cloud cover and its relationship to relative humidity
during a springtime midlatitude cyclone"
C. J. Walcek
Monthly Weather Review,122, 1021-11035, 1994.
"A cumulus parameterization scheme of detraining drafts"
C. J. Walcek and Q. Hu
Extended Abstracts: 20th Conference on Hurricanes and Tropical
Meteorology. American Meteorological Society, 345-348, 1993.
"Theoretical estimates of the dynamic, radiative and
chemical effects of clouds
on tropospheric trace gases"
C. J. Walcek, W. R. Stockwell and J. S. Chang
Atmospheric Research, 25, 53-69, 1990.
"A three-dimensional Eulerian acid deposition model:
physical concepts and model formulation"
J. S. Chang, R. A. Brost, I. S. A. Isaksen, S. Madronich,
P. Middleton, W. R. Stockwell and C. J. Walcek
Journal of Geophysical Research, 92, 13682-14700, 1987.
"A theoretical method for computing vertical distributions of
acidity and sulfate production within cumulus clouds"
C. J. Walcek and. Taylor
Journal of the Atmospheric Sciences, 43, 439-355, 1986.
Recent Advised Theses
"Plume-scale and regional-scale modeling studies of
uncertainties associated with calculated impacts of aircraft
emissions on upper troposphereic ozone"
"The influence of entrainment-induced variability of
cloud microphysics on the chemical composition of cloudwater"
"Effects of heterogeneous chemical reactions on tropospheric chemistry"
"A detraining plume model of convective mixing to describe vertical
profiles of trace atmospheric constituents"