Climate PhDs Awarded Summer Research Fellowships
Three Climate Dynamics doctoral students were awarded 2022 summer research fellowships by GMU. The fellowships include stipends to support dissertation research over the summer.
Hsin Hsu will be investigating how the connection between evapotranspiration and soil moisture will change under global warming. This is part of ongoing research with Hsin’s advisor, AOES professor Paul Dirmeyer, on the links between soil moisture and climate. In semi-arid regions, lack of soil moisture can limit evapotranspiration, which is the process by which plants evaporate water they have obtained from the soil. Global warming tends to increase the evaporation rate and increase water stress in many regions of the country.
Rachel Gaal is also looking at links between soil moisture and atmospheric behavior. Working with AOES professor and COLA Director Jim Kinter is studying mesoscale convective systems (MCSs), which cause some of the most severe weather in the United States. They confirmed that summertime MCS events that form in unfavorable atmospheric conditions tend to be initiated over drier soils locally, and at larger scales surrounding the point of initiation, a soil moisture pattern emerges that supports the development of the storms. To better understand this finding, this summer research will use modeling experiments to explore MCS initiations over varying states of soil moisture.
Dust storms reduce visibility, cause serious traffic accidents, and pose health risks through the deterioration of regional air quality. Janak Joshi’s dissertation has focused on modeling and prediction of dust storms in the US Southwest. Building on improvements that he has made to a model of atmospheric dust distribution, Joshi will be examining dust storm predictability. How far in advance can a dust storm be predicted? How well can seasonal measures of dustiness be predicted? Joshi is advised by AOES faculty member and University Professor Jagadish Shukla.
