Sustainability Leadership Fellow Cohort: 2011-2012

Postdoctoral Fellow, Department of Atmospherics Science

Research Summary: Predicting future climate is tricky. There are many pieces to the climate puzzle, and computer models used to forecast the climate decades or centuries into the future must get most of these details right. The models must accurately capture the atmosphere‘s general flow as well as smaller features like El Niño. My research aims to improve the model‘s ability to simulate a regional atmospheric pattern called the Madden-Julian Oscillation, which affects the tropical Indian and Pacific Ocean areas. By improving our understanding of this ―puzzle piece‖, we can improve accuracy of climate prediction models and increase confidence in climate forecasts.