CV

Education

August 2024: PhD in Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences, University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA)

September 2018: BS in Applied Mathematics, University of California, San Diego (UCSD).

Honors and Awards

June 2022: CIRES/GSL Summer Internship Program

May 2022: International Association of Wildland Fire Spark Award

March 2022: Richard P. and Linda S. Turco Endowed Graduate Fellowship

March 2022: Brian Lance Bosart Award

June 2020: Future Investigators in NASA Earth and Space Science and Technology Award

December 2019: Naval Research Enterprise Internship Program, Internship Summer 2020

April 2019: UCLA Eugene V. Cota-Robles Fellowship

May 2018: UCSD Math Department Honors with High Distinction

Lead Author Publications

Thapa, L. H., Saide, P. E., Bortnik, J., Berman, M. T., da Silva, A., Peterson, D. A., Li, F., Kondragunta, S., Ahmadov, R., James, E., Romero-Alvarez, J., Ye, X., Soja, A., Wiggins, E., & Gargulinski, E. (2024). Forecasting Daily Fire Radiative Energy Using Data Driven Methods and Machine Learning Techniques. Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres, 129(16), e2023JD040514. https://doi.org/10.1029/2023JD040514

Thapa, L. H., Ye, X., Hair, J. W., Fenn, M. A., Shingler, T., Kondragunta, S., Ichoku, C., Dominguez, R., Ellison, L., Soja, A. J., Gargulinski, E., Ahmadov, R., James, E., Grell, G. A., Freitas, S. R., Pereira, G., & Saide, P. E. (2022). Heat flux assumptions contribute to overestimation of wildfire smoke injection into the free troposphere. In Communications Earth & Environment (Vol. 3, Issue 1). Springer Science and Business Media LLC. https://doi.org/10.1038/s43247-022-00563-x

Co-Author Publications

Dworak, E., Peterson, D.A., Saide, P.E., Thapa, L.H., Bortnik, J. Impact of Smoke Aerosol Loading on Lightning Characteristics of Pyrocumulonimbus Compared with other High-Based Thunderstorms (under review, JGR-Atmospheres).

Saide, P.E., Krishna, M., et al (Thapa is 4th author) (2023). Estimating fire radiative power using weather radar products for wildfires. In Geophyscial Research Letters. https://doi.org/10.1029/2023GL104824.

Turney, F. A., Saide, P. E., et al (Thapa is 10th author). Sensitivity of Burned Area and Fire Radiative Power Predictions to Containment Efforts, Fuel Density, and Fuel Moisture Using WRF-Fire. Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres, 128(18), e2023JD038873. doi.org/10.1029/2023JD038873

Warneke, C., et al (Thapa is 36th author) Fire Influence on Regional to Global Environments and Air Quality (FIREX-AQ), Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres, 128, e2022JD037758,  https://doi.org/10.1029/2022JD037758, 2023.

Pagonis, Demetrios et al., (Thapa is 22nd author) (2023). Impact of Biomass Burning Organic Aerosol Volatility on Smoke Concentrations Downwind of Fires, Environmental Science & Technology. In Environmental Science and Technology. https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.est.3c05017

Berman, M. T., Ye, X., Thapa, L. H., Peterson, D. A., Hyer, E. J., Soja, A. J., Gargulinski, E. M., Csiszar, I., Schmidt, C. C., & Saide, P. E. (2023). Quantifying burned area of wildfires in the western United States from polar-orbiting and geostationary satellite active-fire detections. In International Journal of Wildland Fire (Vol. 32, Issue 5, pp. 665–678). CSIRO Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1071/wf22022

Peterson, D. A., Thapa, L. H., Saide, P. E., Soja, A. J., Gargulinski, E. M., Hyer, E. J., Weinzierl, B., Dollner, M., Schöberl, M., Papin, P. P., Kondragunta, S., Camacho, C. P., Ichoku, C., Moore, R. H., Hair, J. W., Crawford, J. H., Dennison, P. E., Kalashnikova, O. V., Bennese, C. E., … Xu, C. (2022). Measurements from inside a Thunderstorm Driven by Wildfire: The 2019 FIREX-AQ Field Experiment. In Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society. American Meteorological Society. https://doi.org/10.1175/bams-d-21-0049.1

Saide, P. E., Thapa, L. H., Ye, X., Pagonis, D., Campuzano‐Jost, P., Guo, H., Schuneman, M. L., Jimenez, J., Moore, R., Wiggins, E., Winstead, E., Robinson, C., Thornhill, L., Sanchez, K., Wagner, N. L., Ahern, A., Katich, J. M., Perring, A. E., Schwarz, J. P., … Shingler, T. J. (2022). Understanding the Evolution of Smoke Mass Extinction Efficiency Using Field Campaign Measurements. In Geophysical Research Letters (Vol. 49, Issue 18). American Geophysical Union (AGU). https://doi.org/10.1029/2022gl099175

Peer review of journals and proposals

Journal of Geophysical Research-Atmospheres: 2023 (1), 2024 (1)

Nature Scientific Data: 2024 (1)

Environmental Science and Technology: 2024 (1)

Professional Society Memberships

American Geophysical Union, American Meteorological Society (Active), International Association of Wildland Fire

Technical Skills

Coding Languages: Python (scikit-learn, xarray, pandas), Matlab, Fortran (beginner), bash/csh scripting.

Models: WRF-Chem, WRF, Freitas 1D Plume Rise Model, Random Forest, MLP Neural Network, Support Vector Machine

Communication: oral presentations, poster presentations, scientific writing

Computing: high performance computing, NetCDF/GRIB2 file handling, some database manipulation, data visualization (Python and Matlab)

Mentoring Experience

September 2021-June 2024: Elena Dworak, UCLA undergraduate researcher. Publication title: Impact of Smoke Aerosol Loading on Lightning Characteristics of Pyrocumulonimbus Compared with other High-Based Thunderstorms 

September 2020-June 2021: Melinda Berman, UCLA undergraduate researcher, Fall 2019-Spring 2021, next a graduate student at University of Illinois at Urbana- Champaign. Publication title: Quantifying burned area of wildfires in the western United States from polar-orbiting and geostationary satellite active-fire detections.

Research Experience

September 2019-September 2024: UCLA, Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Science

Advisor: Dr. Pablo Saide

Research areas: plume rise, machine learning, wildfire behavior forecasting, air quality modeling (WRF-Chem)

June 2022-August 2022: CIRES/GSL Summer Internship.

Advisor: Dr. Ravan Ahmadov

Research areas: worked on weather-based improvements to FRP forecasting for the RRFS-Smoke model. 

July 2020-September 2020: Naval Research Laboratory, Monterey. NREIP Internship.

Advisor: Dr. David Peterson

Research areas: Studied the first detailed in situ sampling of a pyroCb event.

May 2018-June 2019: Scripps Institution of Oceanography, Center for Western Weather and Water Extremes

PI: Dr. F. Martin Ralph

Research areas: applications of machine learning to atmospheric river forecasting. Attended meetings and conferences with SIO and visiting researchers and professors.  Observed atmospheric rivers in the field with FIRO 2019. 

September 2017-June 2018: UCSD Math Honors Program

Advisors: Dr. Michael Holst and Dr. Joel Norris

Honors Thesis: Applications of Classification Trees to San Diego Marine Layer Prediction

Field Experience

July 2019-August 2019: Fire Influence on Regional to Global Environments and Air Quality (FIREX-AQ). Participated in the Boise deployment of the joint NASA/NOAA field campaign FIREX-AQ. Interpreted models and observations of wildfire smoke emissions.  Presented forecast briefs and preliminary research results to mission scientists.  Flew on a science flight aboard NASA’s DC-8. 

January 2019-February 2019: Forecast Informed Reservoir Operations 2019 (FIRO 2019). Launched radiosondes into atmospheric rivers at the UC Davis Bodega Marine Lab in Northern California.  Assessed atmospheric river impacts. 

Selected Oral Presentations

L.H. Thapa, P.E. Saide, J. Bortnik, C. Howes, M. Mohanty, M. Berman, A. Da Silva, D. Peterson, F. Li, S. Kondragunta, R. Ahmadov, E. James, J. Romero-Alvarez, X. Ye. Forecasting daily fire radiative energy using data driven methods for air quality forecasting. Oral presentation at the 7th International Association of Wildland Fire Fuels and Fire Behavior Conference, April 2024, Boise, ID.

L. Thapa, R. Ahmadov, E. James, J, Romero-Alvarez,  G. Grell, F. Li, X Zhang, S. Kondragunta, Using weather forecasts to predict the evolution of wildfires for smoke forecasting. Oral presentation at the American Meteorological Society Annual Meeting, Jan 2023, Denver, CO.

L. Thapa, P. Saide, J.W. Hair, A. Soja, X. Ye, M. Fenn, S. Kondragunta, C. Ichoku, E.

Gargulinski, R. Dominguez, T. Shingler, Evaluating predicted smoke plume heights against airborne lidar observations for multiple fires during FIREX-AQ.  Oral presentation at the AGU Fall meeting; December 2020; Held virtually.

L. Thapa, D. Peterson, E. Hyer, R. Moore, A. Soja, S. Kondragunta, P. Campuzano Jost, P. Saide. Observations from inside a wildfire-driven thunderstorm: the 2019 FIREX-AQ field campaign. Oral presentation at the AGU Fall meeting; December 2020; Held virtually.

Selected Poster Presentations

Thapa, L. H., Saide, P.E., Bortnik, J., Berman, M.T., da Silva, A., Peterson, D.A., Li, F., Kondragunta, S., Ahmadov, R., James, E., Ye, X., Soja, A.J., Wiggins, E.B., Gargulinski, E., Forecasting daily fire radiative energy using scaled persistence and machine learning for air quality applications. Poster presentation at the Informal Gathering on Atmospheric Science and Photochemistry (IGASP), Oct 2023, Los Angeles, CA.

Thapa, L. H., Saide, P.E., Bortnik, J., Berman, M.T., da Silva, A., Peterson, D.A., Li, F., Kondragunta, S., Ahmadov, R., James, E., Ye, X., Soja, A.J., Wiggins, E.B., Gargulinski, E., Forecasting daily fire radiative energy using scaled persistence and machine learning for air quality applications. Poster presentation at the Meteorology and Climate-Modeling for Air Quality meeting, Sept 2023, Davis, CA.

L. Thapa, R. Ahmadov, E. James, J, Romero-Alvarez,  G. Grell, F. Li, X Zhang, S. Kondragunta, Can we use weather forecasts to predict the evolution of wildfires for smoke forecasting? Poster presentation at the American Meteorological Society Annual Meeting, Jan 2023, Denver, CO.

L. Thapa , P.E. Saide, J. Bortnik, M. Berman, A. da Silva, S. Kondragunta, I. Csiszar, C. McClure, N.R. Pavlovic, S. Huang, R. Ahmadov, D. Peterson, Forecasting Western US Wildfire Emissions Using Machine Learning. Poster presentation at the International Association of Wildland Fire Conference, May 2022, Pasadena, CA.

L. Thapa, P. Saide, M. Berman, A. Da Silva, Forecasting Western US wildfires using machine learning.  E-Lightning presentation at the AGU 2021 Fall meeting; December 2021; New Orleans, LA.

L. Thapa, W. Chapman. Random Forest for Coastal IVT Forecasting. Poster at the Center for Western Weather and Water Extremes Annual Meeting; April 2019; La Jolla, CA.

Press Articles

December 2020: Australia’s severe 2019-20 wildfires acted like a volcanic eruption, slightly cooling the globe by Maddie Stone (Capital Weather Gang), The Washington Post. https://www.washingtonpost.com/weather/2020/12/12/australia-wildfires-volcanoes-global-effects/

December 2020: Wildfires blast smoke corkscrews to the top of the atmosphere by Chelsea Harvey, Scientific American. https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/wildfires-blast-smoke-corkscrews-to-the-top-of-the-atmosphere/

July 2019: Plumes Go the Distance by Ellen Gray, NASA Earth Expeditions

Professional Experience

September 2018-May 2019: Science Educator, Fleet Science Center

September 2017-June 2019: Private Tutor, Self-Employed

October 2016 -June 2017: Mentor, UCSD SISTERS (Sustaining Interest in Science, Technology, Engineering and Research in Society)

June 2017-August 2017: Regional Team Leader, Camp Galileo and Galileo Summer Quest

Extracurricular and Volunteer Experience

September 2021-June 2022: AOS Website Committee Member

September 2021-Present: Society for Gender Equity in Geoscience (SGEG) board member. Social Chair (2021-2022)

September 2019-Present: Chi Epsilon Pi (XEP) board member, Social Media Chair (2019-2020), Co-President (2020-2021), Social Media Chair (2021-2022)

September 2014-June 2018: UCSD Pepband, Historian (2015-2016), PR Manager (2016-2017)

February-April 2015, April-August 2016: UCSD Cosmology, Undergraduate Research