Graduate Students’ Distinguished Visiting Lecture
Lecture: “Response of Extreme Precipitation to Climate Change: Physical Understanding and Machine Learning”
Professor Paul O’Groman, Massachusetts Institute of Technology Department of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences
When: Thursday, May 30, 2024, 4:00 – 5:20 p.m.
Where: Foege Hall GNOM S060
About the Speaker
Paul O’Gorman is an expert on large-scale dynamics of the atmosphere, the hydrological cycle, moist convection, and climate change. His recent work has focused on the response of precipitation extremes to climate change, the effect of latent heating on atmospheric circulations, and the use of machine learning to improve climate models. He has been involved in a number of influential papers about the response of the hydrological cycle to warming, including Singh and O’Gorman (2013) which introduced the zero-buoyancy plume model to explain increases in CAPE extremes.
This year, Paul was awarded the American Meteorological Society’s (AMS) 2023 Bernhard Haurwitz Memorial Lectureship, which recognizes outstanding mid-career scientists who have made “significant contributions to the understanding of atmospheric and ocean fluid dynamics, the circulation of the middle atmosphere, or the dynamics of climate”.
Lecture: “Climate Risk Science: An Applied Field in Need of Synthesis and Theory”
Professor Adam Sobel, Columbia University’s Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory and Engineering School
When: Wednesday May 10, 2023, 7:00-8:30 p.m.
Where: Johnson Hall 102*
* A recording of the lecture will be available to those who register for the event
About the Speaker
Adam Sobel is a professor at Columbia University’s Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory and Engineering School. He studies the dynamics of climate and weather phenomena, particularly in the tropics. In recent years he has become particularly interested in understanding the risks to human society from extreme weather events and climate change, which will be the basis for his public lecture at UW on May 10, 2023.
Prof. Sobel’s research spans basic and applied prediction and risk assessment, and uses observations, theory, and numerical simulations with models spanning a hierarchy in complexity. He is author or co-author of over 150 peer-reviewed scientific articles; a popular book, Storm Surge, about Hurricane Sandy; and numerous op-eds. He is particularly interested in the interactions between turbulent deep convection and large-scale atmospheric dynamics, as these are key to the qualitative and quantitative understanding and prediction of many modes of atmospheric behavior, including extreme precipitation events. He has developed novel methods for diagnosing these interactions, connecting high-resolution explicit simulations of cloud systems to simple theoretical representations of large-scale dynamics in order to extract essential mechanisms and understand the connections between weather and climate. In another line of work, with colleagues in both academia and the insurance industry, Sobel has been developing hybrid statistical-dynamical models, combining mechanistic understanding with inference from observational data, to assess the risk of rare but extremely damaging extreme weather events, particularly tropical cyclones, tornadoes, and hail.
Prof. Sobel has received the Meisinger Award (2010) and Louis J. Battan Author’s Award (2014) from the American Meteorological Society, the Ascent Award from the Atmospheric Sciences Section of the American Geophysical Union (2014), and the Lamont-Doherty Award for Excellence in Mentoring (2010).
Lecture: “The Atmospheric Life Cycle of Pollen”
Professor Allison Steiner, University of Michigan Department of Climate and Space Sciences and Engineering
When: Lecture Thursday, May 12, 2022, 7:00-8:30 p.m.
Where: Kane Hall 110
About the Lecture
Understanding atmospheric aerosol particles has long been a research focus in both atmospheric chemistry and climate, as they can influence climate, alter the formation of clouds and precipitation, and drive air quality. However, the role of primary emission of biological particles remains relatively unconstrained. In this lecture, I will describe how we can understand this often ignored source of particles to the atmosphere, with a focus on the release of pollen from vegetation. This includes new methods to quantify the emission to the atmosphere and including them in atmospheric models that allow interactions with clouds and precipitation. I’ll discuss how the atmospheric processing of pollen is important for atmospheric chemistry, climate and health.
About the Speaker
Allison Steiner is a Professor of atmospheric sciences in the Department of Climate and Space Sciences and Engineering at the University of Michigan. She received her B.S. in chemical engineering from Johns Hopkins University and her Ph.D. in atmospheric sciences from the Georgia Institute of Technology. Her research uses and develops state-of-the-art models to explore the interactions of the biosphere and atmosphere, with the goal of understanding the natural versus human influence on climate and atmospheric chemistry. Within the atmospheric sciences community, she has served as an editor at Journal of Geophysical Research-Atmospheres (2014-2018) and a member of the National Research Council’s committee on The Future of Atmospheric Chemistry Research (2016), is a current member of the National Academy of Sciences Board on Atmospheric Sciences and Climate and is the president-elect of the Atmospheric Sciences section of the American Geophysical Union.
Sponsored by the Department of Atmospheric and Climate Science.
Lecture: “Making Sense of Climate Projections”
Dr. Clara Deser, Senior Scientist and Head of the Climate Analysis Section within the Climate and Global Dynamics Division at the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR)
When: Lecture Thursday, June 6, 2019, 7:30-9:00 p.m.
Where: Kane Hall 110
A video of this lecture is now available for viewing.
About the Lecture
The world is facing unprecedented changes in climate worldwide due to human activities, in particular the burning of fossil fuels which release carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. Global climate models, which are based on the laws of physics, provide an experimental laboratory for probing the response of the earth’s climate system to projected rises in greenhouse gases. In this lecture, I will discuss how to interpret what climate models tell us about human-induced climate change over the coming decades, and the confounding effects from natural variability.
About the Speaker
Dr. Clara Deser is a Senior Scientist and Head of the Climate Analysis Section within the Climate and Global Dynamics Division at the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR). She studies global climate variability and climate change, with an emphasis on interactions among the atmosphere, ocean and sea ice. Dr. Deser has co-authored over 100 publications on topics such as ENSO, Pacific and Atlantic decadal variability, Arctic and Antarctic sea ice trends, and regional climate change. Dr. Deser is a Fellow of the American Geophysical Union (AGU) and the American Meteorological Society (AMS), a recipient of the AMS Meisinger Award, and the AMS Editor’s Award from the Journal of Climate. She is a co-chair of the Community Earth System Model Climate Variability and Change Working Group, and a contributing author to the 4th and 5th IPCC Assessment Reports. Dr. Deser received her Bachelor of Science in Earth and Planetary Science from Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1982 and her Ph.D. in Atmospheric Science from the University of Washington in 1989. Prior to joining NCAR in 1997, she was a Research Associate at the Cooperative Institute for Research in the Environmental Sciences at the University of Colorado.
Sponsored by the Department of Atmospheric and Climate Science. Register here.
Lecture: “What have we learned from decades of scientific storm chasing?”
Dr. Yvette Richardson, Professor of Meteorology Associate Dean for Undergraduate Education, College of Earth and Mineral Sciences at Penn State University
When: Lecture Thursday, January 17, 2019, 7:30-9:00 p.m.
Where: Kane Hall 210
About the Speaker
Dr. Yvette Richardson’s research focuses on understanding the formation and evolution of severe storms and tornadoes using numerical modeling and observations, and she was a steering committee member for the second Verification of the Origins of Rotation in Tornadoes Experiment (VORTEX2) and its counterpart in the southeastern U.S. (VORTEX-SE). She is a Fellow of the American Meteorological Society, where she serves as the Planning Commissioner. She earned her Masters and Ph.D. in Meteorology from the University of Oklahoma and her B.S. in Physics from the University of Wisconsin River Falls.
Sponsored by the Department of Atmospheric and Climate Science.
Lecture: “Trust but Verify: the Science of Climate Treaty Verification”
Prof. Inez Fung, University of California, Berkeley
April 6, 2017, 7:30-8:30 p.m., Kane Hall 220
About the Lecture
The world’s nations are gathering to pledge targets for future greenhouse gas emissions. How well can we determine whether a nation is meeting its emission targets?
Gases are mixed rapidly, albeit incompletely, in the atmosphere. This rapid mixing confounds the problem of climate treaty verification. I will review the global carbon cycle, the activities that release CO2, and how the land and oceans have absorbed about half the CO2 we have emitted into the atmosphere.
I will also review the Measurement, Reporting and Verification (MRV) of climate treaty verification. A new satellite, the Orbital Carbon Observatory 2, successfully launched on July 2 2014, delivers unprecedented observations of CO2 variations in the atmosphere. I will present a “top-down” approach for estimating carbon dioxide emissions from the atmospheric CO2 variations. Satellite and in-situ CO2 observations together with raw weather observations are assimilated into a global carbon-climate model, so that surface sources and sinks of CO2 can be inferred as required for mass conservation.
About the Speaker
Inez Fung is a Professor of Atmospheric Science at the University of California, Berkeley. She researches the interactions between climate change and biogeochemical cycles, including the hydrological cycle, modeling and observing the carbon cycle, and how dust affects marine productivity. Dr. Fung was the second woman to earn a Ph.D. in meteorology at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and in 2007, she shared in the Nobel Peace Prize awarded to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). In addition, she has received the Roger Revelle Medal from the American Geophysical Union (AGU), was elected a member of the Academia Sinica in Taiwan, is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, and is a fellow of both the AGU and the American Meteorological Society (AMS).
Sponsored by the Department of Atmospheric and Climate Science.
Lecture: “El Niño, and the Rise of the Pacific as Global Climate Pacemaker”
Prof. Shang-Ping Xie, Scripps Institution of Oceanography and University of California San Diego
April 7, 2016, 7:30-8:30 p.m.,, Kane Hall 220
About the Lecture
When Charles Darwin stepped on the Galapagos of the eastern Pacific in 1835, he saw “an arid volcanic soil” and leafless vegetation. Unknown to Darwin is that every few years, rain storms of El Niño transform the islands into a lush landscape. El Niño effects are far-reaching, causing droughts that keep wild fires raging for months in Indonesia and driving the storm track from the Pacific Northwest to California. Prolonged cooling of the tropical Pacific temporarily slowed down global surface warming in the early 21st century while atmospheric carbon dioxide concentration has continued to rise, exceeding 400 ppm for the first time since Homo sapiens walked the Earth. The lecture surveys the scientific advances that transformed our view of the equatorial Pacific from a remote ocean to the great pacemaker of global climate.
About the Speaker
Shang-Ping Xie is a professor of climate science and holds the Roger Revelle Chair in environmental science at Scripps Institution of Oceanography, UC San Diego. His research concerns ocean-atmosphere interactions, climate variability and change. His work contributes to answering such fundamental questions as how climate varies both naturally and in the face of increasing greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, how preferred patterns of climate variability form, and how predictable climate is. He was a lead author of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Fifth Assessment Report, and named as a highly cited researcher by Thomson Reuters in 2014.
Sponsored by the Department of Atmospheric and Climate Science.
Lecture: “Mercury in the Global Environment—Where Does It Come From, Where Does It Go?”
Prof. Daniel Jacob, Harvard University
May 21, 2015, 7:30-8:30 p.m., Kane Hall 210
About the Lecture
When people think of mercury, they tend to think of the element in its silvery, fluid state—the stuff to avoid if a thermometer breaks. It’s a fascinating metal in that it is liquid at room temperature, but it is present in the atmosphere as an elemental gas. Does mercury come from the atmosphere, bodies of water, soil, intentional use of mercury in products and processes (commercial mercury)? Discover where it comes from and where it goes.
About the Speaker
Daniel J. Jacob is the Vasco McCoy Family Professor of Atmospheric Chemistry and Environmental Engineering at Harvard University. Professor Jacob is one of the group leaders for the Atmospheric Chemistry Modeling Group at Harvard. His research interests lie in the field of global atmospheric chemistry, climate change, air pollution and biogeochemical cycles. He has been honored with the Haagen-Smit Prize from Atmospheric Environment, James B. Macelwane Medal from the American Geophysical Union, and NASA Distinguished Public Service Medal. He is a top-ranked geoscientist in the world according to the Institute for Scientific Information based on citations and was ranked 16th “hottest researcher in the world” on the basis of frequently cited papers.
Sponsored by the Department of Atmospheric and Climate Science.
Lecture: “Tornadoes in Observations and Theory”
Dr. Richard Rotunno, Senior Scientist at National Center for Atmospheric Research, Boulder CO.
June 5, 2014, 7:30-8:30 p.m., Kane Hall 210
About the Lecture
In this talk Dr. Rotunno will survey some of the basic facts about tornadoes: seasons and regions of occurrence, size, intensity and duration. In the last decade or so, major advances in gathering information on the structure of tornadoes (i.e., how the wind in the tornado varies with radius and height above the ground) has come from mobile Doppler radar which can be positioned at close range (less than 2-3 miles) to the tornado. Although there are important limitations to the mobile-Doppler radar, the database using this technology has increased to the point where certain generalizations about tornado structure are now possible. Perhaps the most important generalization is that the strongest winds in a tornado are found at the lowest observable level which is approximately 10 meters (30 feet) off the ground. Dr. Rotunno will show that this finding (among others) is consistent with older theoretical and laboratory tornado models.
About the Speaker
Dr. Rotunno specializes in storms and large-scale atmospheric events, including tornadoes, squall lines, gust fronts, hurricanes, polar lows, mid-latitude cyclones and fronts, sea breezes, and a variety of related areas. He combines theory and numerical modeling to seek ways of improving the forecasting of these weather phenomena, and has engaged in modeling that simulates certain atmospheric events, such as hurricanes, in unprecedented detail. He is the recipient of the 2004 Jule G. Charney Award, American Meteorological Society, and the Banner I. Miller Award, AMS.
Sponsored by Department of Atmospheric and Climate Science.
Lecture: “Timescales and Uncertainties in Climate Change”
Dr. Geoffrey K. Vallis, Senior Scientist and Professor in the Program in the Atmosphere and Oceanic Sciences and NOAA’s Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory at Princeton University
May 16, 2013, 7:00-8:00 p.m., Kane Hall 210
About the Lecture
Our planet is warming, and much of that warming is due to the burning of fossil fuels; this much we know. Yet there is much we do not know, and putting bounds on these uncertainties is critical if we are to avoid, or justify, either the alarmist or complacent tendencies that are simultaneously found in abundance in society. We also need to better appreciate the timescales on which the planet will warm as we burn fossil fuels, and then will cool down after we have burnt all the fuel. Some recent arguments suggest that global warming will not be as bad in the short term as sometimes portrayed, but may nevertheless be much worse than anticipated in the long term. But what exactly is the ‘short term’ and what is the ‘long term’? And how certain can we be about any of this? If the answer is ‘not very’, should we even care about the long term?
About the Speaker
Professor Vallis’ work varies between basic research in geophysical fluid dynamics and more applied modeling of various aspects of the ocean, atmosphere, or climate, although distinguishing between these subfields can sometimes be quite arbitrary. A common feature of his work is trying to use basic theory in conjunction with more complete numerical models to come to a more well-rounded understanding of phenomena than can be achieved with a single approach.
On the oceanic side, much of his recent work has been devoted toward trying to understand the three-dimensional structure of the wind-and-buoyancy-driven circulation, and in particular the thermocline. The effects of ventilation (or subduction), diffusion and mesoscale eddies all play a role, and disentangling their sometimes competing effects involves the use of both numerical models and theory. He’s now trying to understand the ocean’s role in climate change–how does the ocean absorb heat in a warming planet?
On the atmospheric side, he’s recently been looking at the nature of variability at timescales from a week to a season, and how this might be caused by the interaction of baroclinic eddies. Again, a complete understanding of this involves bringing together areas as seemingly diverse as the theory of geostrophic turbulence, wave-meanflow interaction, and general circulation modeling of the atmosphere.
Sponsored by Department of Atmospheric and Climate Science.
Lecture: “Learning While Burning: Energy, Economy, and Environment”
Dr. Richard B. Alley, Evan Pugh Professor of Geosciences and Associate of Earth and Environmental Systems Institute, Pennsylvania State University
May 23, 2012, 7:30-8:30 p.m., Kane Hall 210
About the Lecture
We enjoy the benefits, but not the costs, of our unsustainable energy system. There is high scientific confidence that if we burn most of the fossil fuels and release the CO2 to the air, we will change the climate in ways that make life harder. Yet, we are surrounded by renewable resources that greatly exceed likely human use. And, solid scholarship shows that learning to use these sustainable resources before we burn all the fossil fuels can benefit the economy and national security as well as the environment.
About the Speaker
Dr. Richard Alley is the Evan Pugh Professor of Geosciences and Associate of the Earth and Environmental Systems Institute at Pennsylvania State University where he has worked since 1988. He graduated with a Ph.D. in 1987 from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and M.Sc. (1983) and B.Sc. (1980) degrees from Ohio State University-Columbus. He conducts research and teaches on the climatic records, flow behavior, and sedimentary deposits of large ice sheets, to aid in prediction of future changes in climate and sea level. His experience includes field seasons in Antarctica, Greenland, and Alaska. His awards include election to the US National Academy of Sciences, the Tyler Prize for Environmental Achievement, the Revelle Medal of the American Geophysical Union and the Horton Award of their Hydrology Section and Fellowship in the Union, the Seligman Crystal of the International Glaciological Society, the first Agassiz Medal of the European Geosciences Union Cryospheric Section, Fellowship in the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the US Presidential Young Investigator Award, the Public Service Award of the Geological Society of America, the Easterbrook Award of their Quaternary Geology and Geomorphology Division and Fellow in the Society, the American Geological Institute Award for Outstanding Contribution to Public Understanding of the Geosciences, and at Penn State, the Eisenhower Teaching Award, the Evan Pugh Professorship, the Faculty Scholar Medal in Science, and the College of Earth and Mineral Sciences Wilson Teaching Award, Mitchell Innovative Teaching Award and Faculty Mentoring Award.
Dr. Alley has served on a variety of advisory panels and steering committees, including chairing the National Research Council’s Panel on Abrupt Climate Change and participating in the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (which was co-recipient of the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize), and has provided requested advice to numerous government officials in multiple administrations including a US Vice President, the President’s Science Advisor, and committees and individual members of the US Senate and the House of Representatives. He has published over 190 refereed papers, and is a ‘highly cited’ scientist as indexed by the Institute for Scientific Information (ISI). His popular account of climate change and ice cores, The Two-Mile Time Machine, was chosen science book of the year by Phi Beta Kappa in 2001.
Sponsored by Department of Atmospheric and Climate Science, Quaternary Research Center, and Program on Climate Change