o Boundary layer meteorology: Investigation of boundary layer features over diverse land surface (arid, semi-arid, tropics, inland vs. coastal, urban-sub-urban-rural environments) in different spatial scales (local-regional-continental scales), on diverse timescales (diurnal-synoptic-seasonal, inter-annual) and over different topographical regions (flat terrain, mountaintops, slopes, valleys) using active (e.g. lidar, sodar, ceilometer), passive (e.g. MWR) and soundings (e.g. tethered balloon, rawinsondes, hexacopter, very tall tower).

o Lidar remote sensing of state variables and tracers: Vertically-pointing and scanning lidar remote sensing technology for aerosols, temperature, wind, water vapor, O₃; Development of novel data analyses techniques (e.g., boundary layer height estimation, lidar signal inversion, turbulence structure retrievals).

o Turbulence: Fluxes using tower-based micro-meteorological measurements (i.e. Eddy Covariance Systems) and airborne measurements; Profiling of turbulence features combining ground-based lidars, sodar; spatial heterogeneity in turbulence features over flat and mountainous terrain as well as urban, rural and semi-urban sites; Surface layer turbulence features using tower-based measurements.

o Mountain meteorology: Boundary layer features over complex mountainous areas (arid and sub-humid regions) of different scales (low mountaintops < 1500 m MSL, tall mountains > 2500 m MSL); Impact of thermally driven circulations (up/down slope-valley flows, gap flow) and their impact on tracers (aerosol, CO, CO₂, O₃ etc.) in mountain-valley atmospheres; Impact of mountain ridges in governing spatial variability of convective boundary layer features (e.g. terrain following, independent) and turbulence kinetic energy; Convective and orogrpahically-induced precipitation processes, Pre-convective and convective processes including convection initiation.

o Carbon cycle: Measurement and analyses of atmospheric greenhouse gases, land-surface interaction and effect on tracer distributions in the lower troposphere, transport processes in the lower troposphere during fair and synoptically active environment; Exchange of carbon and water between the biosphere and the atmosphere over land; CO₂ distribution over megacities.

o Atmospheric aerosols: Physiochemical properties of aerosol particles using ground based, airborne, satellite borne measurements; Air pollution; Spatiotemporal variability in aerosol optical depth and size distributions, Impact of boundary layer depth on aerosol distributions; Roles of aerosols in near-surface fog, convection initiation, and cloud formation; Aerosol emission and transport processes.