Thomas L. Delworth | |
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Born | St. Louis Missouri |
Education | Northwestern University, University of Wisconsin |
Scientific career | |
Institutions | GFDL, NOAA, Princeton University |
External videos | |
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"Tom Delworth earns AGU Bert Bolin Award for Climate research at GFDL,·NOAA,·Sep 10, 2021 |
Thomas L. Delworth is an atmospheric and oceanic climate scientist and Senior Scientist at the Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory (GFDL), part of NOAA. He also serves on the faculty of Oceanic Science at Princeton University. [1]
Delworth is a fellow of the American Geophysical Union and received its 2021 Bert Bolin Award for Climate research, for "major contributions in atmosphere ocean interactions through pioneering climate modeling that has advanced the understanding of climate variations, change, and extremes." [2] He has been recognized as a Highly Cited Researcher by Clarivate Analytics for 2021 [3] and multiple previous years for having "demonstrated significant influence through publication of multiple highly cited papers during the last decade". [4] [5]
Delworth grew up in St. Louis, Missouri. [6] He received his B.S. in Integrated Science in 1979 from Northwestern University. He earned his MS in meteorology (1983) and his Ph.D. in Atmospheric Science (1994) from the University of Wisconsin. [7] [8]
In 1984, [7] Delworth joined the Climate Dynamics Group of the Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory (GFDL), part of the Office of Oceanic & Atmospheric Research of the National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) of the U.S. Department of Commerce, in Princeton, NJ. He has served as a Research Meteorologist (1984–2001), a Group Leader (2001–2012) and Supervisory Physical Scientist (2012-). In addition Delworth has been a lecturer in atmospheric and oceanic sciences at Princeton University since 2008. [7] [9]
Delworth has collaborated with many others including 2021 Nobel Laureate Syukuro Manabe, who created the first climate models to show the effects of carbon dioxide building up in the atmosphere, Ronald J. Stouffer, Michael E. Mann, and Rong Zhang. [10] [11] [12] [13] Delworth serves on the Syukuro Manabe Climate Research Award Committee of the American Meteorological Society. [14]
Delworth studies the global climate system through long-term global climate modeling at timescales ranging from seasons to decades [6] and centuries [2] with an emphasis on understanding climate variability, change and predictability. [2] He has helped to develop climate modelling systems including CM2.1 [15] and SPEAR. [16] He has used hierarchies of models to examine climate variability and related changes. [2] He compares the natural variability of the climate (changes that would occur without human influence) with responses to atmospheric changes in greenhouse gases and aerosols that result from human actions. [6]
Delworth's research focuses on the impact of oceans throughout the global climate system, affecting both oceans and continents worldwide. [6] Delworth has done key research into the operation of the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC) and the related Atlantic Multidecadal Variability (AMV) and North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO). [17] [18] [19] He is credited with "major contributions in atmosphere ocean interactions through pioneering climate modeling that has advanced the understanding of climate variations, change, and extremes." [2] [20] He has collaborated widely on studies of the role of the ocean in extreme weather such as warming temperatures, drought, tropical cyclones, flooding and winter storms. [20]
"The ocean is big. It covers 70 percent of the Earth. It stores a lot of heat and it moves heat around. If the Atlantic Ocean is warm, how does that impact climate? If the Arctic sea ice is melting, what does that do?" - Thomas L. Delworth, 2021 [6]
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Syukuro "Suki" Manabe is a Japanese–American physicist, meteorologist, and climatologist, who pioneered the use of computers to simulate global climate change and natural climate variations. He was awarded the 2021 Nobel Prize in Physics jointly with Klaus Hasselmann and Giorgio Parisi, for his contributions to the physical modeling of Earth's climate, quantifying its variability, and predictions of climate change.
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Pacific Centennial Oscillation is a climate oscillation predicted by some climate models.
Cyclonic Niño is a climatological phenomenon that has been observed in climate models where tropical cyclone activity is increased. Increased tropical cyclone activity mixes ocean waters, introducing cooling in the upper layer of the ocean that quickly dissipates and warming in deeper layers that lasts considerably more, resulting in a net warming of the ocean.
Shian-Jiann Lin is a Taiwanese-American atmospheric scientist. He is currently the head of the Weather and Climate Dynamics Division at the Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory, the lead developer of the GFDL Finite-Volume Cubed-Sphere Dynamical Core (FV3). and a lead developer or key contributor to several weather and climate models developed using FV3.
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Sukyoung Lee is a professor at Pennsylvania State University known for her research on circulation in Earth's atmosphere and the Southern Ocean. In 2021 Lee was elected a fellow of the American Geophysical Union.
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