Research FociWeather and Climate Dynamics Division
Randall M. Dole, Division Director
This division, created in October 2005, is focusing on understanding how global processes are intertwined to create the weather and climate we observe from the troposphere to the mesosphere. Observational and theoretical research concerned with the interactive boundary layers on both sides of the air-sea interface focuses on boundary-layer turbulence, heat storage in the oceanic mixed layer, the roles of boundary-layer clouds in these phenomena and the response of the two layers to variable forcing. Large-scale atmospheric and oceanic variability associated with the El Niño/Southern Oscillation (ENSO) phenomenon represents another challenge for climate forecasting. Other research spans scales from global waves and turbulence in the stratosphere to fine-scale turbulence in the boundary layer.
