Recently announced by the DOE Office of Science Early Career Research Program, Mike Pritchard from the University of California-Irvine is one of 35 awardees who will receive funding support for their research over the next 5 years. Pritchard, Assistant Professor of Earth System Science, was selected for his research topic, “Understanding the Roles of Cloud Microphysics and Land Surface Coupling Feedbacks in Multi-Scale Predictions of Central U.S. Summer Hydroclimate.” His research will be funded through the Office of Biological and Environmental Research.
Pritchard, an expert in next-generation climate simulation, will use data from the ARM Climate Research Facility’s Southern Great Plains (SGP) site in Oklahoma and Midlatitude Continental Convective Clouds Experiment (MC3E), conducted at the SGP site in 2011, to investigate a multitude of questions about Earth’s water cycle at the regional scale, specifically summertime rainfall in the Great Plains. Using a “super-parameterized” version of the Community Earth System Model as his primary analysis tool, his research goals are to better understand:
- how uncertain assumptions about microphysics affect the propagation and structure of Central U.S. storms in superparameterized global simulations
- the effects of explicitly resolved deep convection on land surface coupling energetics in superparameterized simulations.
For more information, see the following press releases: