I am a research scientist working in the Climate Extremes Modeling Group led by Prof. Kevin Reed with the School of Marine and Atmospheric Science.

Interactions between radiative fluxes, the large-scale circulation, and the clouds embedded therein have an immense influence on Earth’s climate.  My research focuses on how clouds act as conduits for energy passing through the Earth system and their role in the variability of Earth’s climate.  An inadequate understanding of the interactions between clouds and circulations within Earth’s climate holds society back in at least three areas: the prediction and response to regional extreme weather, prediction of future climate change, and the improvement of global climate models.

My research relies heavily on the use of numerical climate models.  My laboratory consists of the supercomputers that run climate models (such as the Gaea computer at Oak Ridge National Laboratory or the Cheyenne computer at the NCAR-Wyoming Supercomputing Center), the numerical code that defines the models, and the software tools, such as python, that are used to analyze and visualize the enormous quantities of data that are produced by climate models.  Observations from satellites are used both to motivate the climate model experiments and to validate and judge the results from climate models.