My group’s research focuses on large-scale atmospheric dynamics—we work to understand how atmospheric circulations, radiative transfer, ocean interactions, and land surface processes control the distribution of heat and water on Earth. Some of our research centers on monsoons, which are continental-scale atmospheric circulations that deliver water to billions of people in Asia, Africa, the Americas, and northern Australia; monsoon winds also constitute a major component of Earth’s global atmospheric circulation. We also study extreme weather and climate phenomena, seeking to understand how fluid dynamics and thermodynamics govern the behavior of atmospheric vortices, heat waves, and intense precipitation. We pay particular attention to the phase changes of water in Earth’s atmosphere, as the interaction of precipitating clouds with planetary-scale flow is one of the central unresolved problems of planetary science. In all of our work, we combine theory, observational analyses, and numerical models to discover how the world around us works.
I am also an editor of the Journal of the Atmospheric Sciences, and a Faculty Scientist at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. In addition to teaching courses on atmosphere-ocean dynamics and extreme weather, I lead a career seminar to coach students as they work to turn their Berkeley degrees into meaningful lifelong careers.
Atmospheric science, fluid dynamics, monsoons, Earth's hydrological cycle
