My research interests span climate geoengineering, climate extreme events, regional climate change modeling & impacts, tropical meteorology, monsoon dynamics, climate data analytics and machine learning approaches. I am committed to bridging advanced climate science and practical solutions for sustainable development in a changing climate. Specifically, I am focusing on:
Understanding the impacts associated with Stratospheric Aerosol Injection (SAI)
In my ASP Postdoctoral Fellow Position with the NSF National Center for Atmospheric Research (NSF-NCAR), I am working to understand the impact of solar geoengineering on climate extremes. Here, my interest is in how the baseline climate differs from geoengineering scenarios and how that translates to affect climate extremes.
Improving CESM-SAI models using regional refinement
Imagine trying to understand the intricate details of a painting by looking at it from a hundred meters away. This is the challenge we face with current geoengineering models, which often rely on climate models with coarse spatial resolutions. These models, with grid sizes around 100 kilometers, struggle to capture the nuanced regional dynamics and localized impacts of SAI. To address this gap, we turn to dynamical downscaling using CESM regional refinement, a powerful technique that enhances the spatial and vertical resolution of climate models. By refining these models, we can better assess the potential impacts of climate interventions like SAI on a regional scale. This approach not only improves our understanding of how these interventions might affect local climates but also informs more effective and responsible decision-making in the realm of geoengineering. Hence I explore how dynamical downscaling of CESM-SAI datasets can transform our approach to climate intervention assessments.
Ph.D. thesis: The co-behavior of climate processes and high-pressure index
My Ph.D. thesis focused on understanding large-scale climate process influence on regional climate variability. Working with Prof. Bruce Hewitson, on this topic, my thesis developed a novel approach to understand the co-behavior of climate processes over Southern Africa leading to two(2) publications: (a methodology to assess co-behavior of climate processes and interrogating performance of CMIP5 GCMs in reproducing co-behavior) in the Journal of Climate. Upon completion, I worked as Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Cape Town, South Africa (2020-2023) working on understanding regional climate variability and change which led to a publication on developing a high-pressure system index over the South Atlantic in Atmospheric Science Letters.
MPhil. thesis: West African Monsoon jump and its implication for rain-fed agriculture
Prior to beginning my Ph.D., I worked was advised by Prof. Nana Ama Browne Klutse with my MPhil thesis seeking to understand the West African Monsoon (WAM) jump and its implication for rain-fed Agriculture.