Synopsis of Research in Shanghai (June 16 - July 11):
Full of uncertainty and disorder, the Earth’s climate system is a unique subject in complex systems science. Reducing complex phenomena to simple laws is fascinating to Professor Yi Zhang as a scientist. Climate science also serves a more practical mission – to better prepare societies worldwide for the impact of climate change. Accurately predicting future changes in climate and extreme weather requires a fundamental understanding of underlying physical mechanisms. Professor Zhang is interested in atmospheric dynamics and the interaction between dynamics, thermodynamics, and radiative transfer. Professor Zhang particularly appreciates the insights that analytical theories provide, whether they are predictive or diagnostic. Achieving quantitative agreement with simple theories can be challenging in our complex climate system, but Professor Zhang strives to incorporate analytical components in each piece of her research.
This summer, Professor Zhang is planning to work on extreme heat related research. Professor Zhang previously derived an upper bound for air temperature during heat waves based on fundamental laws of atmospheric dynamics and thermodynamics. While this scaling has broad applicability across midlatitude regions, it does not work as effectively in every region. The Eastern China plain is a particularly interesting case in terms of meteorology, being affected by the deflected jet stream by the Tibetan Plateau. The severe heat waves in 2022 was considered the worst in a hundred years. Understanding the meteorological conditions that permits events of this strength to occur is highly essential for estimating the occurrence probability of this type of events in a changing climate due to anthropogenic warming and natural variabilities.