Ned Snell

Ned Snell, Ph.D. — Executive Vice President and Senior Vice President — Advanced Science and Technology Division

Dr. Snell is AER’s Executive Vice President and also leads the Advanced Science and Technology Division.  Since 2012 he has served as the Program Manager for AER's GOES-R effort, working on the nation's next generation geo-synchronous weather and environment satellite.  Dr. Snell is experienced in all aspects of both theoretical and experimental remote sensing, including extensive infrared and ultraviolet radiative transfer model and retrieval algorithm development. He led the development of the infrared ozone retrieval algorithm for the infrared algorithms of the Ozone Mapping and Profiling Suite (OMPS) and served as AER Project Manager for algorithm development for the Cross-Track Infrared and Microwave Sounder Suite (CrIMSS), part of what is now the Joint Polar Satellite System (JPSS).

Dr. Snell is a member of the Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers (SPIE), the American Geophysical Union (AGU), and the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA). Prior to joining AER in 1994, he studied and received a PhD in Atmospheric and Space Sciences from the University of Michigan and an AB in Geophysics from the University of Chicago.

Solar forecasting and cloud observations for NREL workshop

By Ned Snell
June 23, 2011

To do solar forecasting well requires the ability to model the impacts of clouds. Different cloud types impact the amount of energy produced by a solar farm in significant ways...whether it's a haze in the sky, fog near the ground, or thick cumulus clouds that cause dark shadows and block more solar radiation, to name a few. Thus a skilled solar forecast should consider solar irradiance and transfer.