Research


Earth's energy imbalance

Earth's albedo was observed to be symmetric between the hemispheres.

  • We find that dimming from clouds is mostly symmetric between the NH and SH.
  • But the overall symmetry is breaking due to trends from atmospheric clear-sky reflection (a dimming of the NH and brightening of the SH).
  • We attribute the Southern Ocean brightening to wind-driven sea spray aerosol increase.

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Aerosol-cloud interactions

How do aerosol properties influence cloud droplet activation and cloud formation?

Open-source tools for particle-based microphysics modeling

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Stratocumulus cloud response to climate change

  • Stratocumulus clouds are prevalent only in certain regions (e.g. off the coast of California) because they exist through a delicate balance of cool ocean temperatures below and a strong temperature inversion at the top of the boundary layer created from subsiding free-tropospheric air.
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3D cloud radiative effects

How large is the albedo bias in climate models resulting from 1D radiative transfer assumptions?

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Convective transport in the upper troposphere-lower stratosphere (UTLS)

Liz Moyer's group uses water vapor isotopes (HDO/H2O) to quantify the role of convection on transport in the UTLS.

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