TO: The UMBC Community
FROM: Larrabee Strow, Research Professor of Physics, and Sergio DeSouza Machado, Research Assistant Professor of Physics
We are deeply saddened to report that Scott Hannon passed away
Thursday night after a nearly two-year battle with cancer. Scott
received his BA, and in 1990, his MS in Physics from UMBC. He
remained at UMBC for the next 22 years as a Research Assistant in the
Physics Department/Joint Center for Earth Systems Technology.
Scott’s early work in the Physics Department’s Atmospheric
Spectroscopy Laboratory involved laser spectroscopy of carbon dioxide
and nitrogen molecular collisions, providing a new model for
understanding carbon dioxide absorption in the earth’s atmosphere.
Following this work he spent most of his career helping to develop and
use a new generation of high-spectral resolution infrared satellite
instruments that provide input for daily weather forecasts around the
world, and are now being used for climate trending. He also developed
algorithms for the measurement of various atmospheric gases using
high-spectral resolution infrared satellite data, including nitric
acid, carbon dioxide, sulphur dioxide, dust, and volcanic ash.
Scott had a particular talent for distilling complicated physics
models into computationally simple but accurate algorithms. He
applied this talent to topics such as the atmospheric water vapor
absorption, and more recently the effects of solar radiation on
mesospheric carbon dioxide emissions. His model for this “non-LTE”
emission is now the standard for models being developed by other
research groups around the world.
Scott’s work is known, and used, world-wide by many national
meteorological centers and research centers. This includes two
algorithms he helped develop for atmospheric radiative transfer that
provide the basis for converting the measured satellite radiances into
atmospheric temperature and water vapor. To this day, and most likely
for years to come, his fast radiative transfer algorithm called SARTA,
is run every day on both NOAA and NASA computers to analyze the daily
satellite data from two US satellite instruments (AIRS and CrIS), and
a European instrument (IASI). Scott participated in the ground
testing of both the NASA AIRS instrument, and the NOAA/JPSS CrIS
instrument, and his models of the instrument hardware are also used
worldwide by many meteorological centers (Europe, Japan, New Zealand,
Australia, etc.).
Scott was very well known to students in the Atmospheric Physics
Ph.D. program, who often took advantage of his in-depth knowledge of
atmospheric spectroscopy and radiative transfer for their classes and
thesis research. He was always ready and willing to help anyone who
asked, including outside academics and industry.
Scott worked very closely for over 15 years with the AIRS Project
Office at NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory. His advice and algorithms
were highly valued by JPL and he will be missed by many there. One of
his last activities was to influence changes to the in-orbit operation
of the AIRS instrument in order to preserve the integrity of the
climate record produced by that instrument.
Scott’s quiet manner belied his intense commitment to integrity and
quality in everything he did. He was one of those un-sung heroes of
science, quietly doing first-rate work with no interest in personal
accolades of any sort. Unknown to many, Scott had a encyclopedic
knowledge of many topics, ranging from World History to Music, and he
was always happy to have friendly discussions on any topic. His
presence and camaraderie, and willingness to help everyone, will be
missed by many.
Private services were held for Scott, and condolences may be sent to the Hannon family at 6614 Jacks Court, Mount Airy, MD 21771.
