Snow and ice albedo feedbacks are critical regulators of the global energy budget. Dr. Khan's research characterizes the radiative forcing of Light-Absorbing Particles (LAPs)—including black carbon, mineral dust, and glacial microbiota. By reducing surface albedo, these impurities enhance the absorption of shortwave solar radiation and transfer thermal energy to the snowpack, thereby accelerating melt. Her research team utilizes a multi-scale remote sensing framework to distinguish these particles via their unique spectral signatures, synthesizing in-situ biogeochemical data with multi- and hyperspectral observations from Uncrewed Aerial Systems (UAS) and satellites. This high-resolution UAS data serves to bridge the scale gap between discrete ground measurements and coarse satellite footprints, enabling the development of robust retrieval algorithms needed to parameterize cryospheric darkening in Earth System Models. She currently leads multiple initiatives advancing this work, including an NSF CAREER Award quantifying the spatiotemporal distribution of Antarctic snow algae and a NASA PACE-Science award leveraging next-generation hyperspectral satellite data to map biologically driven albedo reduction across the Greenland Ice Sheet. Complementing this biological focus, her team also characterizes the deposition of smoke-derived black carbon resulting from intensifying high-latitude wildfires.
keywords
Spectral geophysics. surface radiative forcing, uncrewed aerial systems, drone remote sensing, sensing in extreme environments, snow science, Antarctic sciences, alpine and high mountain studies
