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

Ge, Bowen, Gang Chen, Jian Lu and Wenyu Zhou, 2025: Moist Energy Constraints on Surface Temperature Variance Under Climate Warming , Journal of Advances in Modeling Earth Systems, 17, doi:10.1029/2024MS004612.

Ding, Xiuyuan, Gang Chen, Yuan Wang and Lantao Sun, 2025: Demystifying the drivers of the spring warming asymmetry between Eurasia and North America , Science Advances, 11, doi:10.1126/sciadv.adu2364.

Ge, Wendong, Noah S Prime, Steven J Smith, Junfeng Liu, Yang Ren, Yuhan Zhou, Huihuang Wu, Xian Wang and Gang Chen, 2025: The short-term comprehensive impact of the phase-out of global coal combustion on air pollution and climate change , Environmental Pollution, 367, 125669, doi:10.1016/j.envpol.2025.125669.

Chen, Gang and Yu Nie, 2025: Effective Time Scale of the Northern Hemisphere Winter Circulation Waviness , Journal of Climate, 38, 1021--1035, doi:10.1175/JCLI-D-24-0236.1.

Ding, Xiuyuan, Gang Chen and Gudrun Magnusdottir, 2024: North American cooling signature of strong stratospheric wave events depends on the QBO phase , Environmental Research: Climate, doi:10.1088/2752-5295/ad53f6.