Don Garber

Background

About Don Garber

I currently work in atmospheric sciences. I'm something of a utility infielder rather than a franchise player and so I turned my hand to anything that needed to be done. Before this most recent stint in atmospheric science, I spent a few years in acoustics (my second incarnation), doing pretty much what I had done before, but as a NASA employee rather than as a contractor. In my first incarnation in atmospheric science I spent my time on research on remote sensing of the atmosphere and the Earth's surface. This research focused on the characterization and measurement of clouds, aerosols, and radiation for the study of climate. My role was primarily one of statistical analysis of noisy data and the numerical solution of multi-dimensional cloud model predictions for the retrieval of cloud properties from remotely sensed radiative data. I also advocated the use of hypertext servers for the dissemination of data and had to pay the price of setting up a server as well as developing and maintaining hypertext pages for that purpose. Before becoming involved in atmospheric science for the first time, I supported research in acoustics. I was primarily involved in analysis of recorded noise, secondarily involved in noise propagation, and only peripherally involved with source prediction. The analysis of recorded noise included spectral analysis; ensemble averaging and statistical confidence estimating; beam steering, source localization, and tracking; and detection of sources including development of methods, algorithms, and software to predict the detectability of aircraft. Noise propagation work focused on development of a three-dimensional ray-tracing algorithm to predict long range propagation of sound from high altitudes. Farther back in time, I supported research in advanced composite materials.