Cristian Velasco-Merino

About

Cristian Velasco-Merino is a leading researcher in atmospheric aerosol science, with a focus on the long-range transport of Saharan dust and its impact on climate and air quality. His work has been instrumental in understanding how mineral dust properties evolve during transatlantic transport from Africa to the Caribbean Basin. Through key contributions to the SALTRACE campaign, he characterized dust optical and microphysical changes over Barbados, providing critical data for climate models. Velasco-Merino also advanced observational capabilities by co-developing the CÆLIS software tool for AERONET data processing, enabling daytime and nighttime aerosol optical depth retrievals, and by introducing the ZEN-R52 radiometer for autonomous aerosol and water vapor monitoring. His research, cited over 190 times, includes the development of detection thresholds for African dust events in the Caribbean and the use of hierarchical clustering to identify aerosol types. Velasco-Merino’s work bridges ground-based remote sensing, calibration science, and applied climatology, making him a key figure in aerosol research and environmental monitoring.

Research Focus

Key Achievements

Top Papers

1. 1
   Impact of long-range transport over the Atlantic Ocean on Saharan dust optical and microphysical properties based on AERONET data

   49 citations · 2018
2. 2
   Sun photometer retrievals of Saharan dust properties over Barbados during SALTRACE

   33 citations · 2019
3. 3
   Daytime and nighttime aerosol optical depth implementation in CÆLIS

   32 citations · 2020
4. 4
   Column Integrated Water Vapor and Aerosol Load Characterization with the New ZEN-R52 Radiometer

   27 citations · 2020
5. 5
   Assessment of a new detection threshold for <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline" id="d1e1116" altimg="si116.svg"> <mml:mrow> <mml:mi>P</mml:mi> <mml:mi>M</mml:mi> <mml:mn>10</mml:mn> </mml:mrow> </mml:math> concentrations linked to African dust events in the Caribbean Basin

   25 citations · 2020
6. 6
   Comparison of three different methodologies for the identification of high atmospheric turbidity episodes

   14 citations · 2020
7. 7
   Identification of Aerosols’ Optical Properties in the Caribbean Area Using Ascending Hierarchical Clustering Analysis

   6 citations · 2024
8. 8
   Impact of long-range transport over the Atlantic Ocean on Saharan dust optical and microphysical properties

   4 citations · 2017
9. 9
   Day- and night-time aerosol optical depth implementation inCÆLIS

   2 citations · 2020

Key Collaborators

Contact & Links