DelSole Textbook Published

AOES professor Tim DelSole’s textbook Statistical Methods for Climate Scientists is now out. The book, with co-author Michael Tippett of Columbia University, “provides a comprehensive introduction to the most commonly used statistical methods relevant in atmospheric, oceanic, and climate sciences.” Climate dynamics is notoriously complex, with variability in both time and space, and statistics is often key to discovering and interpreting key phenomena hiding in the terabytes of atmospheric and oceanic data. The book takes students on a journey from fundamental statistical concepts to sophisticated climate applications.

The book is based on the graduate statistics course that DelSole has taught for over a decade to students in Climate Dynamics and other programs at Mason. Students who have taken CLIM 762 Statistical Methods in Climate Research often cite it as one of the most challenging, and most rewarding, courses of their career. DelSole and Tippett have a guest blog post at Climate.gov where they ask – and answer – the question “What is predictability?” Predictability of climate and weather is a theme of much of the climate research in AOES.

Tim DelSole was also featured recently in a tribute that went out in a message celebrating the American Meteorological Society’s (AMS) National Volunteer Month. Anthony Broccoli, Co-Chief editor of AMS’s Journal of Climate, wrote “All our volunteers are impressive in their dedication and energy, but I will select just one example. Tim DelSole of George Mason University recently completed his service as Co-Chief Editor of the Journal of Climate. He served in that capacity for five years, prior to which he was a JCLI Editor for seven years. Tim's dedication to his JCLI responsibilities was exemplary. He often handled papers that involved highly technical statistical issues, and he managed them with aplomb.”