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 Chao Li, 2020: Dynamic amplification of subtropical extreme precipitation in a warming climate , Geophysical Research Letters, 1--15, doi:10.1029/2020GL087200.

Li, Chao, Ying Sun, Francis Zwiers, Dongqian Wang, Xuebin Zhang, Gang Chen and Hui Wu, 2020: Rapid Warming in Summer Wet Bulb Globe Temperature in China with Human-Induced Climate Change , Journal of Climate, 33, 5697--5711, doi:10.1175/JCLI-D-19-0492.1.

Leung, Danny M., Hongrong Shi, Bin Zhao, Jing Wang, Elizabeth M. Ding, Yu Gu, Haotian Zheng, Gang Chen, Kuo‐Nan Liou, Shuxiao Wang, Jerome D. Fast, Guangjie Zheng, Jingkun Jiang, Xiaoxiao Li and Jonathan H. Jiang, 2020: Wintertime particulate matter decrease buffered by unfavorable chemical processes despite emissions reductions in China , Geophysical Research Letters, doi:10.1029/2020GL087721.

Guan, Weina, Xianan Jiang, Xuejuan Ren, Gang Chen and Qinghua Ding, 2020: Role of atmospheric variability in driving the “Warm‐Arctic, Cold‐continent” pattern over the North America sector and sea ice variability over the Chukchi‐Bering Sea , Geophysical Research Letters, doi:10.1029/2020GL088599.

He, Hao, Hailong Wang, Zhaoyong Guan, Haishan Chen, Qiang Fu, Muyin Wang, Xiquan Dong, Chunguang Cui, Likun Wang, Bin Wang, Gang Chen, Zhanqing Li and Da-Lin Zhang, 2020: Facilitating International Collaboration on Climate Change Research , Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, 101, E650--E654, doi:10.1175/BAMS-D-19-0320.1.