The focus of my research group is the fundamental dynamics in atmospheric circulation and chemical transport. Through a combination of theory and numerical modeling, we develop toolboxes to understand the global circulation of the atmosphere, from tropical Hadley cell circulations to extratropical storm systems, from tropospheric extreme weather to stratospheric polar vortex breakdown events, and from transport of water vapor to stratosphere-troposphere exchange of ozone. These processes are instrumental to our understanding of weather extremes (e.g. winter blizzards or heat waves), hydrological extremes (e.g., drought or flooding), or extreme air pollution. Our research can be categorized in two interrelated themes.

• Global atmospheric circulation and regional weather extremes
• Transport of atmospheric moisture and chemical species

For example, transport and mixing near the tropopause (~10km above the ground) can be illustrated in the animantion of Ertel’s Potential Vorticity (left) and O3 mixing ratio (right):

Recent Publications

Nie, Yu, Gang Chen, Jian Lu, Wenyu Zhou and Yang Zhang, 2023: Constraining the Varied Response of Northern Hemisphere Winter Circulation Waviness to Climate Change , Geophysical Research Letters, 50, doi:10.1029/2022GL102150.

Zhang, Pengfei, Gang Chen, Mingfang Ting, L. Ruby Leung, Bin Guan and Laifang Li, 2023: More frequent atmospheric rivers slow the seasonal recovery of Arctic sea ice , Nature Climate Change, doi:10.1038/s41558-023-01599-3.

Jiang, Xianan, Duane E Waliser, Peter B Gibson, Gang Chen and Weina Guan, 2022: Why Seasonal Prediction of California Winter Precipitation Is Challenging , Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, 103, E2688--E2700, doi:10.1175/BAMS-D-21-0252.1.

Ma, Weiming and Gang Chen, 2022: What Controls the Interannual Variability of the Boreal Winter Atmospheric River Activities over the Northern Hemisphere? , Journal of Climate, 1--39, doi:10.1175/JCLI-D-22-0089.1.

Nie, Yu, Yang Zhang, Gang Chen and Xiu-qun Yang, 2022: Quantifying Eddy Generation and Dissipation in the Jet Response to Upper-versus Lower-level Thermal Forcing , Journal of the Atmospheric Sciences, doi:10.1175/JAS-D-21-0307.1.