Climate Processes and Predictability Group
Principal Investigator
Aneesh Subramanian
I am currently an Assistant Professor at the Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences (ATOC) at the University of Colorado Boulder. I am also a visiting scientist at Center for Western Weather and Water Extremes at Scripps Institution of Oceanography, UC San Diego and a visiting scholar in the Predictability of Weather and Climate group in the Physics Dept. at the University of Oxford. I graduated from the Climate Research Division at Scripps Institution of Oceanography, UC San Diego in 2012. My research interests are varied and are mainly focused on weather and climate prediction, data assimilation, and geophysical fluid dynamics.
Graduate Students
Danni Du
I am a Ph.D. student at the Department of Atmospheric and Ocean Sciences at the University of Colorado – Boulder. My research interests include air-sea interaction, and the role of the Indian Ocean in Monsoon Dynamics.
Danni is co-advised by Prof. Weiqing Han.
Contact: Danni.Du@colorado.edu
Tim Higgins
I am currently a Ph.D student at the Department of Atmospheric and Ocean Sciences at the University of Colorado – Boulder. I was born and raised in Connecticut and earned a BS from the University of Miami in meteorology/atmospheric sciences and applied mathematics in 2020. I am interested in nonlinear data assimilation, machine learning, and the dynamic properties of Atmospheric Rivers. I am focusing on ways to improve numerical weather prediction on subseasonal, subseasonal to seasonal, and seasonal timescales.
Contact: timothy.higgins@colorado.edu
I am currently a PhD Student at CU Boulder in Atmospheric and Oceanic Science, working in the Climate Processes and Predictability research group. My background includes an undergraduate degree in Physics, a Masters in Civil and Environmental Engineering, and 5 years in environmental consulting before making my way back to research in the Fall of 2021. I am interested in the intersection of process-based models and observations, and am currently working on ways of using machine learning to improve data assimilation methods
Contact: Lucas.Howard@colorado.edu
Ziqi Yin
I am a Ph.D student at the Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences at CU Boulder. I am interested in ice sheet-climate interactions and numerical modeling. My current project focuses on high-resolution, fully-coupled simulations of the Greenland Ice Sheet in a future, strongly warming scenario.
Contact: ziqi.yin@colorado.edu
Isaac Davis
I am a Ph.D student at the Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences at CU Boulder. I am interested in extreme weather prediction using machine learning methods. My current project focuses on improving our prediction skill of the US West Coast weather systems including atmospheric rivers using machine learning
Contact: isaac.davis@colorado.edu
Post-doctoral Scholars
Yingli Zhu
Dr. Yingli Zhu began his academic journey at the Ocean University of China, earning a BS in Atmospheric Science in 2007. He continued his studies at the same institution and achieved an MS in Atmospheric Science in 2010. Driven by a passion for marine science, Dr. Zhu then transitioned to the University of South Florida where he secured his PhD in Marine Science in 2019. After attaining his doctorate, he assumed the position of Postdoc Associate at the University of Delaware, holding this role from 2019 to 2021. Dr. Zhu moved to CU Boulder to work with Prof. Weiqing Han in 2021 and joined our group in Fall 2023 . Dr. Zhu is co-mentored by Prof. Weiqing Han. Yingli's research delves into sea level variability and change, ocean mesoscale dynamics & internal waves, and decadal ocean & climate variability.
Contact: Yingli.Zhu @ colorado.edu
Undergraduate research students
Brendan Myers
Brendan is a recent graduate from CU Boulder. Brendan joined the group in a collaborative project with Dr. Gerald Meehl and Dr. Christine Shields at NCAR to study downslope winds in the Front Range using in-situ observations from local weather stations as well as using reanalysis and other data products to identify changes in extreme wind conditions in the Front Range over the past several decades.
Zaria Cast
Currently in my 3rd Summer as a SOARS Protégé working to understand Antarctica's Snowfall drought (2023). I am in the Department of Geography at the University of Colorado - Boulder. I am from Memphis, Tennessee and earned a BS from the University of Tennessee - Martin in Geoscience with a concentration in Meteorology in 2023. I am interested in Polar Climate, the Future of Climate Warming, and Coastline Sea Level Rise.
Research Scientists
Dave Reynolds
Dave started with us in Fall 2019. Dave spent close to a decade as Meteorologist in Charge (MIC) of the National Weather Service (NWS) San Francisco Bay Area Forecast Office. Before becoming MIC in 2002, Dave was Chief of Operations of the Hydrometeorological Prediction Center, one of the service centers of the National Centers of Environmental Prediction in Washington DC. Before joining the NWS as the Science and Operations Officer at Monterey in 1994, Dave directed the Sierra Cooperative Pilot Project from 1982 until 1994. His primary interest is in Quantitative Precipitation Forecasting (QPF) and in climate change impacts in California.
Mike MacFerrin
Mike MacFerrin is a research associate in the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences (CIRES) and in our group at the University of Colorado in Boulder. Dr. MacFerrin's specialties focus on the interactions of increased meltwater on snow and firn properties on the Greenland ice sheet, with a secondary specialty in using Computer Vision and Machine Learning technologies to extract information from satellite and airborne remote sensing observations. MacFerrin's PhD work resulted in the discovery of a new meltwater runoff mechanism occurring in Greenland that is beginning to rapidly accelerate runoff from the upper-elevation interior of Greenland, further enhancing its contributions to sea-level rise. The work was published in the journal Nature, "Rapid expansion of Greenland's low-permeability ice slabs".
In addition to his research, MacFerrin works as a part-time faculty at the University of Colorado, teaching Remote Sensing and Introduction to Climate Change for the Geography and Atmospherice & Oceanic Sciences departments, respectively. Dr. MacFerrin is also engaged in science outreach and, time allowing, available for speaking events and other engagements about ice sheet science and glaciology. His talks and commentaries have been featured in several podcasts, TV productions, and public talks in recent years.
Rajashree Tri Datta
Tri Datta is a research associate in the Department of Atmospheric and Ocean Sciences at the University of Colorado Boulder. Dr. Datta's research focuses on how atmospheric drivers affect the surface mass balance of the surface of ice sheets and ice shelves. Dr. Datta is particularly interested in how extreme events can affect surface mass balance non-linearly. The main tool Dr. Datta uses is a variable-resolution version of the global climate model CESM2 (VR-CESM). Dr. Datta has also designed and run a new grid with a higher-resolution domain over Antarctica to examine the effect of large-scale drivers (e.g. circulation and sea ice conditions) on precipitation. Dr. Datta is especially interested in extreme precipitation events which can produce large quantities of snow over Antarctica in very short periods of time.
Graduate Students (Alumni)
Alex Schein
Alex graduated with a Master's from the Department of Applied Mathematics at the University of Colorado, Boulder. He is interested in improving our understanding of atmospheric river events using mathematical modeling tools as well as data assimilation applications for earth system models.
Contact: alexander.schein @ colorado.edu
Mark graduated with a Master's from the Department of Atmospheric and Ocean Sciences at the University of Colorado – Boulder in Fall of 2022. He worked on the global carbon cycle using global earth system models and data assimilation.
Mark was co-advised by Lori Bruwhiler (NOAA scientist).
Contact: mark.leonard @ colorado.edu
Post-doctoral Scholars (Alumni)
Ulla Heede
Dr. Ulla Heede joined the Climate Processes and Predictability Lab in Fall 2023 as a NOAA CVP Postdoctoral Researcher. She completed her Ph.D. in Earth & Planetary Sciences at Yale; her research is on tropical climate dynamics, especially toward understanding how the tropical Pacific coupled ocean-atmosphere system responds to anthropogenic radiative forcing. Ulla completed her undergraduate education at the University of Cambridge (UK). As a graduate student at Yale, her research combining satellites and climate models was recognized by NASA through the Future Investigators in NASA Earth and Space Science and Technology (FINESST) fellowship. Dr. Heede was co-mentored by Prof. Kris Karnauskas.
Contact: Ulla.Heede @ colorado.edu
Dr. Dunmire was a postdoctoral researcher in the Dept. of Atmospheric and Oceanic Science at CU-Boulder (2022-2023). Her research is focused on meltwater in the polar regions. She uses a variety of tools including climate and snow models, field and satellite observations, and machine learning to explore water on Earth's ice sheets.
Homepage
Contact: Devon.Dunmire @ colorado.edu
Dr. Ho-Hsuan Wei joined as a postdoc in Spring 2019. Dr. Wei earned her Ph.D. from Caltech in Environmental Science and Engineering with Dr. Simona Bordoni. Ho-Hsuan's dissertation focused on the seasonally varying tropical convergence zones, which are crucial to billions of people who strongly depend on agriculture. Dr. Wei was co-advised by Prof. Kris Karnauskas. Dr. Wei completed her post-doctoral position with the group in Fall 2022. Dr. Wei is currently a scientist at NOAA-CIRES.
Contact: HoHsuan.Wei @ colorado.edu
Visitors
Ms. Sanchez obtained her Physics degree at the University of Valencia (Spain) in 2018 and her Master's degree in Renewable Energies and Energetic Sustainability at the University of Barcelona (2020). She then was a research collaborator as a data analyst at the Science Museum of Trento (Italy) from 2018 to 2021. She started her PhD at the University of Bologna/CMCC (Italy) in 2021, developing a research focused on the application of machine learning methodologies to the study of climate variability and forecasts. She visited our group from July 2023 to Oct 2023.
Dr. Matsueda is an Associate Professor at the University of Tsukuba, Japan. His research interests are ensemble forecasting, predictability of weather and climate, weather regimes, and high-resolution climate modeling. Dr. Matsueda created and hosts the TIGGE museum and the S2S museum curating state-of-the-art diagnostics for medium-range weather forecasts and subseasonal forecasts. Dr. Matsueda visited our group in Fall 2019.
Dr. Nadimpalli is a post-doctoral scholar at the Indian Institute of Technology Madras, Chennai, India. His research interests are in internal waves, deep ocean mixing, ocean modeling, and remote sensing. Dr. Nadimpalli is experienced in using the SUNTANS and MITgcm regional ocean models to study high-resolution ocean processes including internal waves and solitary wave propagation in the ocean. Dr. Nadimpalli visited our group in Spring 2022.
Undergraduate research students (Alumni)
Jose Chapa
Jose was an undergraduate student in Mechanical Engineering at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley (Summer 2021). His research interests include machine learning, nanotechnology, eddy behavior, and fluid dynamics. Jose studied the Tropical Instability Waves over the Tropical Eastern Pacific and what governs their interannual variability in collaboration with Dr. Eddebbar, Dr. Subramanian, and Danni Du at CU Boulder.
Emily Martinez
Emily is a graduate (summer 2021) from Dartmouth College with a Bachelor of Arts in Engineering Sciences and Environmental Earth Sciences. In Fall 2021, she attended the Thayer School of Engineering at Dartmouth as a fifth-year pursuing a Bachelor of Engineering with a concentration in Environmental Fluid Mechanics. She is interested in geophysical fluid dynamics, climate variability, and numerical modeling. Emily joined the group as a SOARS protégé working to understand changes in atmospheric river activity over the Northeast Pacific.
Muntaha Pasha
Moon was a Fourth Year Undergraduate Student (2020) in Computer Science at CU Boulder. Her research interests include severe thunderstorm formation, clouds, and studying/looking at Extreme weather events, and she is a big star wars fanatic! Moon worked on the Anemometer Project in collaboration with Dr. Christine Shields and Dr. Gerald Meehl at NCAR.
Frederico Tiago Diogo
Graduate (summer 2019) with a B.S in Geophysical Engineering. Interested in remote sensing, digital signal processing, and machine learning.
Alison Jarvis
Alison was a fourth-year undergraduate student (Fall 2019) in Aerospace Engg. at CU Boulder. Her research interests include ocean biogeochemistry, space physics, exoplanets, and space biology. Alison started in our group in Fall 2019 and worked on a research project in ocean biogeochemistry using machine learning.
Alison is currently at CIRES, CU Boulder.