About the Lab
Welcome to the tropical climate dynamics research group at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI)! We are interested in atmospheric and oceanic processes in the tropics and their interactions with higher latitudes. We study a variety of topics, including the Inter-Tropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ), marine atmospheric boundary layer clouds, the Madden-Julian Oscillation (MJO), the Hadley circulation, equatorial waves, tropical cyclones, El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO), and tropical-extratropical interactions. One of our primary goals is to improve understanding of observations of these complex phenomena using a hierarchy of models and observations. With this improved understanding, weather and climate prediction can be guided in the right direction.
We are also involved in science education and outreach, particularly at WHOI and in the local Cape Cod community. From bringing hands-on rotating tank climate science experiments to K–12 and college classrooms to mentoring middle- and high-school students and teachers on research projects, we strive to motivate a generation of future scientists.
Recent News
In early January, Alex Gonzalez, Indrani Ganguly, and James Larson published a journal article in the Journal of Climate on the daily to weekly evolution of low-level winds and convergence prior to the intensification of the Inter-Tropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ) over the east Pacific Ocean using observational and reanalysis data sets: https://journals.ametsoc.org/view/journals/clim/35/4/JCLI-D-21-0216.1.xml. The study focused…
The Tropical Atmospheric Dynamics Group welcomes new graduate students, Fouzia Fahrin and Travis Enzensperger. They both will be researching the east Pacific ITCZ and its associated climate model biases as a part of their Ph.D. and M.S. theses, respectively.
We welcome Urbandale High School Chemistry and Physical Sciences teacher, Katherine Hanson, to our research group for Summer 2021. Katherine will work on studying east Pacific ITCZ events that occurred from 2013 to 2019 in NASA observational and reanalysis data for northern ITCZs, southern ITCZs, and double ITCZs. Katherine is supported by one of Alex’s…
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Many marine gastropods, including conchs and sea slugs, spend their early lives as plankton. Translucent membranes called velum help them maintain buoyancy and capture food particles, but disappear once the animal becomes a bottom-dweller.
📸 by Jialing Cai/homoplankton.com
Many marine gastropods, including conchs and sea slugs, spend their early lives as plankton. Translucent membranes called velum help them maintain buoyancy and capture food particles, but disappear once the animal becomes a bottom-dweller.
📸 by Jialing Cai/homoplankton.com
Like many of us "of a certain age," there are rumors about whether or not #Alvin has had any work done... after all, the deep sea sub doesn't exactly look 60!
📣 Find out all you ever wanted to know (and more) about ALVIN: http://go.whoi.edu/alvin60
Like many of us "of a certain age," there are rumors about whether or not #Alvin has had any work done... after all, the deep sea sub doesn't exactly look 60!
📣 Find out all you ever wanted to know (and more) about ALVIN: http://go.whoi.edu/alvin60