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UCLA
is a world-class center for scientific climate research. Various departments,
research groups, and institutes are devoted to tackling climate related
problems.
Return to Climate Sensitivity Research Lounge
Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences Department
Wolfgang Buermann: Land and Atmosphere Exchanges
Dr. Buermann's
research focuses on controls of energy, water and carbon exchanges
between the land surfaces and atmosphere and associated vegetation
dynamics. His research is relevant to several environmental problems,
including changes in near-surface climate, biodiversity patterns, and
the carbon cycle.
Curtis Deutsch: Ocean Biogeochemistry
Dr.
Deutsch is interested in the processes by which the ocean controls the
concentration of climatically relevant greenhouse gases. His research
is focused on understanding the sources and sinks of biologically
available nitrogen. This ocean nutrient reservoir is a key determinant
of the biological pump, which sequesters carbon dioxide and produces
nitrous oxide, both strong greenhouse gases.
Michael Ghil: Theoretical Climate Dynamics (TCD) Group
Dr. Ghil's group studies
climate dynamics from intraseasonal to millennial time scales using the
methods of dynamical systems theory. These are applied to observations,
numerical models, and experiments.
Alex Hall: Climate Sensitivity Research Lounge (CSRL)
CSRL's
research is focused on reducing uncertainties associated with global
climate change. The group also develops regional earth system
models and studies the climate from a regional perspective to lay the
groundwork for an understanding of climate change at scales most
relevant to people and ecosystems.
Kuo-Nan Liou: Radiative Transfer, Remote Sensing, and Cloud-Aerosol Interactions with Climate
Professor Liou's
research involves atmospheric radiative transfer, the remote sensing of
clouds and aerosols, and the interactions between climate, clouds, and
aerosols. Theoretical, modeling, and satellite-based approaches are
employed to advance our knowledge of these topics. Professor Liou also
serves as Director of the Joint Institute for Regional Earth System
Science and Engineering (JIFRESSE).
James McWilliams: Center for Earth Systems Research (CESR)
CESR is a
base for a broad, cooperative effort to develop, test, and apply comprehensive
numerical modeling capabilities for the Earth's climate for periods extending
over previous millennia, the present, and the coming centuries of anthropogenically
induced changes. Development of the Regional Oceanic Modeling System (ROMS) has also taken place primarily within CESR.
Roberto Mechoso: Climate Modeling
Dr. Mechoso's group engages in numerical modeling of the global atmosphere
to simulate coupled atmosphere-ocean interactions, stratospheric
dynamics,
impacts of cloud on the climate system, and monsoon systems.
J. David Neelin: Climate Systems Interactions (CSI) Group
The CSI group
studies
interactions between various climate system components through
hierarchical climate modeling. A hierarchy of successively simpler
models is built until the phenomenon of interest has been distilled
down to its essential elements.
Bjorn Stevens: Clouds and Climate Processes
Dr. Steven's group
utilizes a variety of methodologies (theory, numerical modeling and
simulation, field work, satellite remote sensing and data analysis) to
develop a better understanding of atmospheric moist convection and its
interaction with large scale circulations.
Yongkang Xue: Land-Atmosphere Interactions and Regional Climate Change
Dr. Xue's group, also
based in the Geography Department, focuses on land surface processes,
atmosphere-land surface coupling, hydrometeorological prediction,
monsoons, and biological responses to climate conditions. Regions of
active research include West Africa, South America, the Continental
U.S., and East Asia.
Civil and Environmental Engineering Department
Terri S. Hogue: Rainfall-Runoff and Land-Surface Modeling
Dr. Hogue's interests
include investigation and application of optimization techniques to
rainfall-runoff and land-surface modeling, and the integration of these
methods into operational flood forecasting. Her research also involves
analysis of land-atmosphere interactions in semi-arid climates, with
special emphasis on modeling surface fluxes in these regions.
Steven Margulis: Hydrology and Hydrometeorology
Dr. Margulis's research
covers the broad areas of surface hydrology and hydrometeorology. His
research group focuses on two primary goals: 1) to improve the ability
to characterize important hydrologic states and fluxes through the
combined application of remote sensing and modeling and 2) to better
understand the underlying mechanisms responsible for their variability
in time and space.
Noah Molotch: Hydrologic Fluxes and Environmental Response
Dr. Molotch conducts
research on processes controlling hydrologic fluxes in semi-arid
mountainous regions and linkages with climate variability, ecological
function, and biogeochemical cycles. His projects utilize ground-based
observations, remote sensing, and computational modeling to obtain
comprehensive understanding of hydrologic forcings in complex terrain.
Geography Department
Glen MacDonald: Biogeography
Dr. MacDonald's group
focuses on causes and impacts of climate change. Current projects are
based in such locations as: the Arctic of Alaska, Canada, Eurasia,
California, Hawaii, Utah and Mali.
Marilyn N. Raphael: Physical Geography, Climatology, Global Climate Change, and Quantitative Methods
Dr. Raphael's research
interests include: Santa Ana winds, global climate change and
variability, climate modeling, atmospheric circulation dynamics,
southern hemisphere atmospheric circulation and climate, and Antarctic
sea ice variability.
Laurence C. Smith: High-Latitude Climate Change
Dr. Smith's interests
focus on the effects of climate change on high-latitude environments,
specifically the hydrologic interactions between the land surface,
atmosphere and oceans, and the response of those linkages to climate
warming.
Institute of the Environment (IOE)
The IOE is an
intellectual community whose members and constituents represent every
area of specialty touching on the environment, encompassing a broad
array of policy concerns and outreach avenues.
Joint Institute for Regional Earth System Science and Engineering (JIFRESSE)
JIFRESSE is a scientific
collaboration between UCLA and NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL)
to improve understanding and to develop future projections about global
climate change and its effect on regional climates and environments.
The Institute serves as a center for multi-disciplinary research
focused on the Southern California region, including studies of the
atmosphere, coastal ocean and land surface, and the physical, chemical
and biological interactions among them.
For comments regarding the UCLA Climate Science Portal, please contact: Sarah Kapnick
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