Atmospheric scientist in the Department of Atmospheric and Earth Science at the University of Alabama in Huntsville (UAH), where he leads the STELA research group at the Earth System Science Center. Udaysankar S. Nair studies interactions between land, atmosphere and ecosystems, with a focus on how land-use change affects clouds and precipitation.
Contribution
Nair holds a BTech in mechanical engineering from the University of Kerala (1988), an MS in meteorology from the South Dakota School of Mines and Technology (1991) and a PhD in atmospheric science from Colorado State University (2002). His dissertation work fed a 2001 paper in Science showing that deforestation in Costa Rica’s lowlands raised the cloud base over nearby montane cloud forests. He received a NASA New Investigator Award in 2006 and an NSF CAREER Award in 2014.
His 2011 study with Tom Lyons, Roger Pielke and others modeled the effect of land clearing in southwest Western Australia on the west coast trough. It found that land-cover change suppressed the trough’s convection, which helps explain why clouds there form over native vegetation and stop at the fence line. The wiki cites the study among the evidence that vegetation influences rainfall under specific mesoscale conditions, through albedo, surface roughness and evapotranspiration.
Selected works
- Lawton, R.O., Nair, U.S., Pielke, R.A. & Welch, R.M. (2001). “Climatic impact of tropical lowland deforestation on nearby montane cloud forests.” Science, 294, 584-587.
- Nair, U.S., Wu, Y., Kala, J., Lyons, T.J., Pielke, R.A. & Hacker, J.M. (2011). “The role of land use change on the development and evolution of the west coast trough, convective clouds, and precipitation in southwest Australia.” Journal of Geophysical Research, 116(D7).
Related pages
Sources
- Faculty profile, UAH Department of Atmospheric and Earth Science
- Curriculum vitae, UAH (2021)
- STELA research group, UAH Earth System Science Center
- Nair et al. (2011), NCAR Earth Observing Laboratory publication record
Provenance
Written 23 October 2026 from the people named on Bioprecipitation, using public institutional profiles and published work. Public roles and publications only. The 2021 CV lists him as associate professor; his current rank is not stated here.