Faculty & Staff Directory
David Straus
- Professor of Climate Dynamics
Contact Info
- Name
- Dr. David M. Straus
- Job Title
- Professor of Climate Dynamics
- Phone Number
- Office Number
- Research Hall, Room 118, MSN 2B3
Affiliations
Departments
- Atmospheric, Oceanic & Earth Sciences Department (Instructional Faculty)
Centers
- Center for Ocean-Land-Atmosphere Studies (COLA)
Research Areas
- Atmospheric Processes
- Atmospheric Science
- Climate Science
- Modeling
Education
PhD, Theoretical Physics, Cornell University (1977)
BA, Physics, University of Pennsylvania (1970)
About
As a Professor with a background in theoretical Physics, I enjoy mentoring students (from the undergraduate to PhD level), teaching classes, pursuing research on atmospheric dynamics and predictability (primarily on the sub-seasonal to seasonal time scales), and interacting with colleagues at George Mason University, other universities in the US, and internationally. My primary responsibilities include teaching classes in the Atmospheric Sciences undergraduate major, and Climate Dynamics classes in the PhD program. Additionally I am responsible for directing the thesis research of PhD students.
Current Research
My research covers a variety of topics in sub-seasonal to seasonal variability and predictability of the atmospheric circulation and related weather. The following projects provide some examples: (1) Relating the patterns of diabatic heating in the tropical Pacific and Indian Oceans to the seasonal rainfall in the Indian Monsoon; (2) Using the relationships between preferred mid-latitude circulation patterns (so-called "regimes") and extreme weather events to try to predict extreme weather several weeks ahead; (3) Understanding how transitions between the regimes may be partially tropically forced via transient diabatic heating. This is only a partial list. (1) and (2) are carried out in conjunction with AOES faculty members and COLA, (3) in conjunction with a PhD student (soon to be graduated).
Teaching Focus
One teaching focus is on understanding the basic structure of the atmosphere and ocean circulation, and how these circulations respond to the basic imbalances imposed by radiative forcing of the earth by transporting energy. (This is taught in CLIM 440 and CLIM 610 at different levels). A second focus is on applying the theory of the atmospheric circulation to the observations (CLIM 753). Lastly, the theory and practical applications of predictability are taught at a graduate level in CLIM 761,
Selected Publications
- Yadav, P., D. Straus and E. Swenson, 2019: The Euro-Atlantic Response to the Madden-Julian Oscillation Cycle of Tropical Heating: Coupled GCM Intervention Experiments. Atmos. – Ocean, in press. DOI: 10.1080/07055900.2019.1626214
- Amini, S., and D. M. Straus, 2018: Control of storminess over the Pacific and North America by circulation regimes. Clim. Dyn, https://doi.org/10.1007/s00382-018-4409-7
- Yadav, P. and D. M. Straus, 2017: Circulation Response to Fast and Slow MJO Episodes. Mon. Wea. Rev., 145, 1577-1596.
- Stan, C., D. M. Straus, J. S. Frederiksen, H. Lin, E. D. Maloney and C. Schumacher, 2017: Review of Tropical-Extratropical Teleconnections on Intraseasonal Time Scales. Rev. Geophys. doi: 10.1002/2016RG000538
- Hannachi, A., D. M. Straus, C. E. Franzke, S. Corti and T. Woollings, 2017. Nonlinearity and Regime Behavior in the Northern Hemisphere Extra-Tropical Atmosphere: A Review. Rev. Geophys., 55, doi:10.1002/2015RG000509.
Clustering Techniques in Climate Analysis
Clustering techniques are used in the analysis of weather and climate to identify discrete groups of atmospheric and oceanic structures and evolutions that occur more frequently than would be expected based on a background distribution, such as a multivariate Gaussian distribution. Some of the techniques identify states that are also unusually long-lived (or persistent)...
Contact Info
- Name
- Dr. David M. Straus
- Job Title
- Professor of Climate Dynamics
- Phone Number
- Office Number
- Research Hall, Room 118, MSN 2B3