Lt Col Kyle E. Fitch, PhD
Assistant Professor of Atmospheric Science
Lt Col Fitch is an Assistant Professor of Atmospheric Science and the Atmospheric Science M.S. Curriculum Chair in the Department of Engineering Physics (ENP) at the Air Force Institute of Technology (AFIT), Air University, Air Education and Training Command (AETC), Wright-Patterson AFB – Dayton, OH. In this capacity, he directs and plans coursework for 10 students and guides other Atmospheric Science faculty in the development of learning outcomes and objectives for individual courses, as well as for the program as a whole. Lt Col Fitch also develops and teaches three to four courses each year and leads an Introduction to Programming in Atmospheric Science and mathematics and physics refresher for new students arriving at the beginning of each academic year. Furthermore, he directs, transitions, and publishes cutting-edge research for top Department of Defense and Air Force weather research and development priorities, by procuring funding and support from research sponsors and other interested stakeholders. Finally, Lt Col Fitch is an advisor and committee member for student thesis research supporting Air Force Weather operational requirements.
Lt Col Fitch earned his commission into the Air Force through the Reserve Officer Training Corps in 2006 and specializes as a Weather and Environmental Sciences Officer (WESO). He has served in various WESO assignments in support of both Air Force and Army operations, as well as in the Intelligence Community at the National Air and Space Intelligence Center (NASIC). Lt Col Fitch deployed to Afghanistan in support of Operation ENDURING FREEDOM on two occasions: first in 2010 as the Staff Weather Officer (SWO) for the US Army’s 10th Combat Aviation Brigade, and a second time in 2013 as the Weather Flight Commander for the 455th Expeditionary Operations Support Squadron.
Education
PhD, Atmospheric Sciences, University of Utah, 2020
MS, Applied Physics, Air Force Institute of Technology, 2016
BS, Atmospheric Sciences, University of Washington, 2006
Awards
- Graduate School Team of the Year (Atmospheric Sciences), 2024
- Graduate School nominee for AFIT Chancellor’s Leadership Excellence, Junior Faculty, 2023
- GSEM’s Academic Year 2022/2023 Dean’s Distinguished Teaching Professor
- Distinguished Graduate, AFIT, 2016
- Dean's Award, Best Thesis in Department of Engineering Physics, AFIT, 2016
- Advanced Technical Intelligence Award, AFIT, 2016
- Undergraduate Atmospheric Sciences Academic Achievement Award, University of Washington, 2006
Publications
[9] Kniezewski, K., Mason, E., Emmons, D., Fitch, K., & S. Garland (2025). Magnetic field variability as a consistent predictor of solar flares. AAS Journals: AAS63424 (in review)
[8] Smith, W., Lay, E., Fitch, K., & D. Emmons (2025). Analyzing LF/VLF lightning waveforms to estimate D-region electron density profiles. Advances in Space Research (in review).
[7] Popick, B., Johnstone, C., Fitch, K., Cox, B., & N. Gaw (2025). Assessing the Calibration and Performance of Attention-based Spatiotemporal Neural Networks for Lightning Prediction. IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing (in review).
[6] Emmons, D., Wu, D., Swarnalingam, N., Ali, A. F., Ellis, J. A., Fitch, K. E., & K. S. Obenberger (2023). Improved models for estimating sporadic-E intensity from GNSS radio occultation measurements. Frontiers in Astronomy and Space Sciences, 10, https://doi.org/10.3389/fspas.2023.1327979.
[5] Fitch, K. E. and T. J. Garrett (2022). Measurement and analysis for the parameterization of Arctic snow with frequent occurrence of riming. Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres, 127(7), e2021JD035980, https://doi.org/10.1029/2021JD035980
[4] Fitch, K. E. and T. J. Garrett (2022). Graupel precipitating from thin Arctic clouds with liquid water paths less than 50 g m-2. Geophysical Research Letters, 49(1), e2021GL094075, https://doi.org/10.1029/2021GL094075
[3] Fitch, K. E., Hang, C., Talaei, A., and T. J. Garrett (2021). Arctic observations and numerical simulations of surface wind effects on Multi-Angle Snowflake Camera measurements. Atmospheric Measurement Techniques, 14(2), 1127-1142. https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-14-1127-2021
[2] Dunnavan, E. L., Jiang, Z., Harrington, J. Y., Verlinde J., Fitch, K. E., and T. J. Garrett (2019). The shape and density evolution of snow aggregates. Journal of the Atmospheric Sciences, 76(12), 3919-3940. https://doi.org/10.1175/JAS-D-19-0066.1
[1] Fitch, K. E., Hutchison, K. D., Bartlett, K. S., Wacker, R. S., and K. C. Gross (2016). Assessing VIIRS cloud base height products with data collected at the Department of Energy Atmospheric Radiation Measurement sites. International Journal of Remote Sensing, 37(11), 2604-2620. https://doi.org/10.1080/01431161.2016.1182665
TALKS AND POSTERS
[22] Fitch, K. & L. Dedrickson (2025, Jan). Aerosol Influences on Enhanced Riming Events in Low-Level Arctic Mixed-Phase Clouds of the North Slope of Alaska and the Central Arctic. Talk presented by K. Fitch at 105th American Meteorological Society (AMS) Annual Meeting, New Orleans, LA.
[21] Popick, B., Fitch, K., Johnstone, C., Cox, B., & N. Gaw (2025, Jan). Spatiotemporal Tornadic Prediction with Recurrent Neural Networks. Talk presented by B. Popick at 105th American Meteorological Society (AMS) Annual Meeting, New Orleans, LA.
[20] Slabaugh, L., Fiorino, S., Raut, Y., Fitch, K., Schmidt, J., & J. McCrae (2025, Jan). Comparing Different Methodologies of Quantifying Surface Layer Turbulence. Poster presented by L. Slabaugh at 105th American Meteorological Society (AMS) Annual Meeting, New Orleans, LA.
[19] Turner, H., Fiorino, S., Keefer, K., Fitch, K., & J. Schmidt (2025, Jan). Assessment of Visibility from Nano- and Micro- Aerosol Particle Concentration. Virtual poster presented by H. Turner at 105th American Meteorological Society (AMS) Annual Meeting, New Orleans, LA.
[18] Fitch, K. (2024, Oct). Aerosol Influences on Enhanced Riming Processes in Low-Level Arctic Mixed-Phase Clouds. Talk presented at 3rd Quantifying the Indirect Effect: from Sources to Climate Effects of Natural and Transported aerosol in the Arctic (QuIESCENT) Arctic Workshop, Lausanne, Switzerland.
[17] Wu, D. L,, Swarnalingam, N., Salinas, C. C. J. H., Emmons, D. J., Fitch, K. E., & J. N. Lee (2024, Sep). Inhomogeneous Responses of Ionospheric Electron Density to the May 2024 Superstorm. Talk presented by D. Wu at 10th Workshop of the International Radio Occultation Working Group (IROWG-10), Boulder, CO.
[16] Fitch, K. E., Cleveland, Z., Stanford, M., & Dedrickson, L. (2024, April). Boundary-layer cloud modeling challenges on the North Slope of Alaska. Talk presented by K. E. Fitch at the 2024 European Geosciences Union (EGU) General Assembly, Vienna, Austria.
[15] Wirth, N., Fitch, K. E., Emmons, D.J., Wu, D.L., Lee, J.N., & Salinas, C.C.J.H. (2024, April). Assessing the Relationship Between the Quasi-Biennial Oscillation and D-Region Electron Density. Poster presented by N. Wirth at the 2024 Space Weather Workshop, Boulder, CO.
[14] Dedrickson, L. & Fitch, K. E. (2023, January). A Model Evaluation of Low-level Arctic Mixed-Phase Stratiform Clouds. Poster presented by L. Dedrickson at the 22nd American Meteorological Society (AMS) Student Conference, Denver, CO.
[13] Cleveland, Z., Fitch, K. E. and Stanford, M. (2022, December). WRF-LES Simulation of Enhanced Riming in Persistent Arctic Mixed-Phase Clouds. Poster presented by K. Fitch at the 2022 American Geophysical Union (AGU) Fall Meeting, Chicago, IL
[12] Cleveland, Z., Fitch, K. E. and Stanford, M. (2022, January). WRF-LES Simulation of Enhanced Riming in Persistent Arctic Mixed-Phase Clouds. Poster presented by Z. Cleveland at the 21st American Meteorological Society (AMS) Student Conference (virtual)
[11] Fitch, K. E. and Starr, C. (2021, December). Estimates of low-level Arctic mixed-phase cloud boundaries using multidirectional oxygen A-band retrievals. Talk presented by K. Fitch at the 2021 American Geophysical Union (AGU) Fall Meeting (virtual)
[10] Fitch, K. E., Garrett, T. J., and A. Talaei (2020, May). Large Graupel Produced by Thin Clouds in the Arctic. Poster presented by T. Garrett at the 2020 European Geosciences Union (EGU) General Assembly Conference (virtual conference)
[9] Garrett, T. J., Fitch, K. E., Talaei, A., and K. Rees (2019, December). Unexpected Impacts of Riming on Hydrometeor Density and Fallspeed in Multi-Angle Snowflake Camera Measurements. Poster presented by T. Garrett at the 2019 American Geophysical Union (AGU) Fall Meeting, San Francisco, CA
[8] Fitch, K. E., Talaei, A., and T. J. Garrett (2019, June). Arctic Hydrometeors and Boundary Layer Clouds. Talk presented by K. E. Fitch at the 2019 Joint Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) User Facility and Atmospheric System Research (ASR) Principal Investigators (PI) Meeting, Rockville, MD
[7] Fitch, K. E., Talaei, A., and T. J. Garrett (2019, June). Thin Clouds Producing Graupel in the Arctic. Poster presented by K. E. Fitch at the 2019 Joint Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) User Facility and Atmospheric System Research (ASR) Principal Investigators (PI) Meeting, Rockville, MD
[6] Fitch, K. E. (2019, March). Arctic Clouds and Precipitation: Boundary Layer Clouds and Riming Processes. Invited talk presented at weekly seminar, Laboratoire d’Optique Atmosphérique, University of Lille, Villeneuve d’Ascq, France
[5] Talaei, A., Garrett, T. J., and K. E. Fitch (2018, December). On the Fall Velocity of a Hydrometeor in a Turbulent Flow. Poster presented by A. Talaei at the 2018 American Geophysical Union (AGU) Fall Meeting, Washington, DC. https://doi.org/10.1002/essoar.10500257.1
[4] Garrett, T., Talaei, A., Fitch, K., Hang, C., Pardyjak, E., Stuefer, M., and T. Gordon (2018, March). Measurements of Hydrometeor Microphysics and Fallspeed in the Arctic with the Multi-Angle Snowflake Camera. Poster presented by T. Garrett at the 2018 Joint Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) User Facility and Atmospheric System Research (ASR) Principal Investigators (PI) Meeting, Tysons, VA
[3] Fitch, K. and T. Garrett (2018, March). Classifying Riming Extent in the Arctic with the Multi-Angle Snowflake Camera. Talk presented by K. Fitch at the 17th Electromagnetic and Light Scattering Conference, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX
[2] Fitch, K., Hutchison, K., Bartlett, K., Wacker, R., and K. Gross (2016, March). Evaluating the VIIRS Cloud Base Height Pixel-level Retrieval Algorithm for Single-layer Water Clouds. Poster presented by K. Fitch at the Southwest Ohio Council on Higher Education Annual Research Symposium, Dayton, OH
[1] Fitch, K., Hutchison, K., Bartlett, K., Wacker, R., and K. Gross (2016, January). Evaluating the VIIRS Cloud Base Height Pixel-level Retrieval Algorithm for Single-layer Water Clouds. Poster presented by K. Fitch at the 15th Annual American Meteorological Society Student Conference, New Orleans, LA