About
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
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.
Ma, Weiming, Hailong Wang, Gang Chen, Yun Qian, Ian Baxter, Yiling Huo and Mark W Seefeldt, 2024: Wintertime extreme warming events in the high Arctic: characteristics, drivers, trends, and the role of atmospheric rivers , Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics, 24, 4451--4472, doi:10.5194/acp-24-4451-2024.
Lu, Jian, Bryce E Harrop, Sandro W Lubis, Samuel Smith, Gang Chen and L Ruby Leung, 2024: The Role of Cloud Radiative Effects in the Propagating Southern Annular Mode , Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres, 129, doi:10.1029/2023JD040428.
Liu, Jiachen, Jun Yang, Feng Ding, Gang Chen and Yongyun Hu, 2024: Hydrologic cycle weakening in hothouse climates , Science Advances, 10, doi:10.1126/sciadv.ado2515.
Ma, Weiming, Hailong Wang, Gang Chen, L Ruby Leung, Jian Lu, Philip J Rasch, Qiang Fu, Ben Kravitz, Yufei Zou, John J Cassano and Wieslaw Maslowski, 2024: The role of interdecadal climate oscillations in driving Arctic atmospheric river trends , Nature Communications, 15, 2135, doi:10.1038/s41467-024-45159-5.