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 develope 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

Norris, Jesse, Gang Chen and J. David Neelin, 2018: Thermodynamic versus dynamic controls on extreme precipitation in a warming climate from the Community Earth System Model Large Ensemble , Journal of Climate, JCLI--D--18--0302.1, doi:10.1175/JCLI-D-18-0302.1.

Chen, Gang, Jesse Norris, J. David Neelin, Jian Lu, L. Ruby Leung and Koichi Sakaguchi, 2018: Thermodynamic and Dynamic Mechanisms for Hydrological Cycle Intensification over the Full Probability Distribution of Precipitation Events , Journal of the Atmospheric Sciences, JAS--D--18--0067.1, doi:10.1175/JAS-D-18-0067.1.

Linz, Marianna, Gang Chen and Zeyuan Hu, 2018: Large-scale Atmospheric Control on Non-Gaussian Tails of Midlatitude Temperature Distributions , Geophysical Research Letters, 1--9, doi:10.1029/2018GL079324.

Lu, Jian, Daokai Xue, Yang Gao, Gang Chen, L. Ruby Leung and Paul Staten, 2018: Enhanced hydrological extremes in the western United States under global warming through the lens of water vapor wave activity , npj Climate and Atmospheric Science, 1, 7, doi:10.1038/s41612-018-0017-9.

Martineau, Patrick, Gang Chen, Seok-Woo Son and Joowan Kim, 2018: Lower-Stratospheric Control of the Frequency of Sudden Stratospheric Warming Events , Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres, 123, 3051--3070, doi:10.1002/2017JD027648.