CAREER: Monsoon and the Upper Troposphere Lower Stratosphere

Lead PI: Dr. Yutian Wu

Unit Affiliation: Ocean and Climate Physics, Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory (LDEO)

September 2017 - April 2023
Inactive
North America
Project Type: Research

DESCRIPTION: Asian and North American summer monsoons play an important role in transporting chemical constituents such as water vapor and pollutants into the upper troposphere lower stratosphere (UTLS). The research objective of this CAREER grant is to advance the understanding of the summer monsoon and its interaction with the UTLS using observations and model hierarchies. The research component will improve the understanding of the dynamical coupling of the troposphere and stratosphere and its impact for surface extremes. It would provide new insights into the troposphere-stratosphere exchange of chemical constituents. The educational objective is to improve math and data analytics proficiency in both high school and undergraduate education. The educational activities will involve collaborations with local high school teachers and geoscience educators. The PI will develop new learning activities for high school math classes by integrating real-world atmospheric data and prompt active learning activities through data analytics and visualizations in undergraduate courses in climate sciences.

The research activities will improve the scientific understanding of the chemical, radiative and dynamical effects of the UTLS on the climate system, and lead to improved understanding and prediction of extreme weather events such as wind gust and extreme rainfall in populated regions like Asia and North America. The educational activities will improve high school students' capability in formulating and solving math problems in real-world situations, and increase college students' performance in classes and their completion of bachelor's degree in STEM. The educational activities are along the lines with the Common Framework for Earth-Observation Data, which was recently released by the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy to improve the public access to find, evaluate, understand, and utilize Earth observations.