Tiffany Shaw

Last updated
Tiffany A. Shaw
Born
Alma mater University of British Columbia, University of Toronto (M.S. and Ph.D)
AwardsNSF CAREER Award, American Geophysical Union James B. Macelwane Medal
Scientific career
Fields
  • Geophysical science
  • Atmospheric science
Thesis Energy and Momentum Consistency in Subgrid-Scale Parameterization for Climate Models
Doctoral advisor Ted Shepherd

Tiffany Shaw is a geophysical scientist from Canada. She is currently an associate professor at the University of Chicago. She is known for her extensive contributions to the geophysical and atmospheric sciences.

Contents

Early life and education

Tiffany Shaw is a geophysical scientist from Brampton, Canada. Her interest in science and math stemmed from an influential math teacher she had in high school. Her specific interest in geophysical and atmospheric sciences began while she was studying to become a pilot.

She received her B.S. in Atmospheric Science and Math at the University of British Columbia in 2004. [1] In 2005, she completed her M.S. in physics from the University of Toronto. In 2009, Shaw received her PhD in physics from the University of Toronto. There, she worked with her mentor and advisor, Ted Shepherd on her doctoral thesis: Energy and Momentum Consistency in Subgrid-Scale Parameterization for Climate Models. [1]

Career and research

From 2009 to 2010, Shaw worked as a Research Assistant Professor at the Center for Atmospheric Ocean Science at the Courant Institute at New York University. Shaw then worked as a Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada Post Doctoral Fellow at the Lamont–Doherty Earth Observatory & Department of Applied Physics and Applied Mathematics at Columbia University from 2010 to 2011. From 2011 to 2015, Shaw worked as an Assistant Professor of Earth and Environmental Sciences & Applied Physics and Applied Mathematics at Columbia University. [1]

In 2015, Shaw began her work at the University of Chicago. From 2015 to 2017, Shaw was an assistant professor of the Geophysical Sciences, and became an Associate Professor of the Geophysical Sciences in 2017. She currently holds this position. [1]

Shaw is known for her research in the Geophysical Sciences and Atmospheric Sciences, and most of her research pertains to how climate change effect these sciences.

In 2004, Shaw and her advisor, Ted Shepherd, wrote the paper The angular momentum constraint on climate sensitivity and downward influence in the middle atmosphere, which asserts that the friction between atmospheric layers needs to be represented in calculations about the effects of climate change. [2] In 2010, Shaw wrote a paper entitled Downward wave coupling between stratosphere and troposphere: The important of meridional wave guiding and comparison with zonal-mean coupling. [3] In 2017, Shaw worked on the paper Moist static energy framework for zonal-mean storm-track intensity. This paper showed that seasonal strength cannot be explained solely by seasonal changes in solar radiation, and that surface heat fluxes account for the muted seasonality in the Southern Hemisphere and large seasonality in the Northern Hemisphere, and in response to climate change surface heat fluxes over ocean versus land exert opposing influences on the strength of storm tracks. [4] Shaw wrote Circulation response to warming shaped by radiative changes of clouds and water vapor (2015), which outlines how the atmosphere will manifest global climate change thru clouds and water vapor. [5] Another well known paper by Shaw is Storm track processes and the opposing influences of climate change (2016), which is about how changing temperature gradients are altering storm track processes. [6]

Awards and honors

In 2013, Shaw received the NSF CAREER award for her work as a teacher, researcher, and scholar. In her physics research, Shaw focused on the variability of transportation of moisture in the summertime, and its effect on monsoons and subtropical anticyclones. [7] In 2015, Shaw received the Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellowship [8] in Physics. In 2017, Shaw won the American Geophysical Union James B. Macelwane Medal for her important contributions to the geophysical sciences. [9]

Publications

Related Research Articles

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The troposphere is the lowest layer of the atmosphere of Earth. It contains 75% of the total mass of the planetary atmosphere and 99% of the total mass of water vapor and aerosols, and is where most weather phenomena occur. From the planetary surface of the Earth, the average height of the troposphere is 18 km in the tropics; 17 km in the middle latitudes; and 6 km in the high latitudes of the polar regions in winter; thus the average height of the troposphere is 13 km.

Keith Peter Shine FRS is the Regius Professor of Meteorology and Climate Science at the University of Reading. He is the first holder of this post, which was awarded to the university by Queen Elizabeth II to mark her Diamond Jubilee.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tropopause</span> The boundary of the atmosphere between the troposphere and stratosphere

The tropopause is the atmospheric boundary that demarcates the troposphere from the stratosphere, which are the lowest two of the five layers of the atmosphere of Earth. The tropopause is a thermodynamic gradient-stratification layer that marks the end of the troposphere, and is approximately 17 kilometres (11 mi) above the equatorial regions, and approximately 9 kilometres (5.6 mi) above the polar regions.

The quasi-biennial oscillation (QBO) is a quasiperiodic oscillation of the equatorial zonal wind between easterlies and westerlies in the tropical stratosphere with a mean period of 28 to 29 months. The alternating wind regimes develop at the top of the lower stratosphere and propagate downwards at about 1 km (0.6 mi) per month until they are dissipated at the tropopause. Downward motion of the easterlies is usually more irregular than that of the westerlies. The amplitude of the easterly phase is about twice as strong as that of the westerly phase. At the top of the vertical QBO domain, easterlies dominate, while at the bottom, westerlies are more likely to be found. At the 30 mb level, with regards to monthly mean zonal winds, the strongest recorded easterly was 29.55 m/s in November 2005, while the strongest recorded westerly was only 15.62 m/s in June 1995.

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Richard Siegmund Lindzen is an American atmospheric physicist known for his work in the dynamics of the middle atmosphere, atmospheric tides, and ozone photochemistry. He is the author of more than 200 scientific papers. From 1972 to 1982, he served as the Gordon McKay Professor of Dynamic Meteorology at Harvard University. In 1983, he was appointed as the Alfred P. Sloan Professor of Meteorology at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he would remain until his retirement in 2013. Lindzen has disputed the scientific consensus on climate change and criticizes what he has called "climate alarmism".

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Rossby waves, also known as planetary waves, are a type of inertial wave naturally occurring in rotating fluids. They were first identified by Sweden-born American meteorologist Carl-Gustaf Arvid Rossby in the Earth's atmosphere in 1939. They are observed in the atmospheres and oceans of Earth and other planets, owing to the rotation of Earth or of the planet involved. Atmospheric Rossby waves on Earth are giant meanders in high-altitude winds that have a major influence on weather. These waves are associated with pressure systems and the jet stream. Oceanic Rossby waves move along the thermocline: the boundary between the warm upper layer and the cold deeper part of the ocean.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Radiative forcing</span> Difference between solar irradiance absorbed by the Earth and energy radiated back to space

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Madden–Julian oscillation</span> Tropical atmosphere element of variability

The Madden–Julian oscillation (MJO) is the largest element of the intraseasonal variability in the tropical atmosphere. It was discovered in 1971 by Roland Madden and Paul Julian of the American National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR). It is a large-scale coupling between atmospheric circulation and tropical deep atmospheric convection. Unlike a standing pattern like the El Niño–Southern Oscillation (ENSO), the Madden–Julian oscillation is a traveling pattern that propagates eastward, at approximately 4 to 8 m/s, through the atmosphere above the warm parts of the Indian and Pacific oceans. This overall circulation pattern manifests itself most clearly as anomalous rainfall.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hadley cell</span> Tropical atmospheric circulation feature

The Hadley cell, also known as the Hadley circulation, is a global-scale tropical atmospheric circulation that features air rising near the equator, flowing poleward near the tropopause at a height of 12–15 km (7.5–9.3 mi) above the Earth's surface, cooling and descending in the subtropics at around 25 degrees latitude, and then returning equatorward near the surface. It is a thermally direct circulation within the troposphere that emerges due to differences in insolation and heating between the tropics and the subtropics. On a yearly average, the circulation is characterized by a circulation cell on each side of the equator. The Southern Hemisphere Hadley cell is slightly stronger on average than its northern counterpart, extending slightly beyond the equator into the Northern Hemisphere. During the summer and winter months, the Hadley circulation is dominated by a single, cross-equatorial cell with air rising in the summer hemisphere and sinking in the winter hemisphere. Analogous circulations may occur in extraterrestrial atmospheres, such as on Venus and Mars.

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References

  1. 1 2 3 4 Shaw, Tiffany. "Tiffany A. Shaw CV" (PDF). geosci.uchicago.edu.
  2. Shepherd, Theodore (December 2004). "The Angular Momentum Constraint on Climate Sensitivity and Downward Influence in the Middle Atmosphere" (PDF). Journal of the Atmospheric Sciences. 61 (23): 2899–2908. Bibcode:2004JAtS...61.2899S. doi:10.1175/JAS-3295.1. S2CID   2205280.
  3. Shaw, Tiffany (August 2010). "Downward Wave Coupling between the Stratosphere and Troposphere: The Importance of Meridional Wave Guiding and Comparison with Zonal-Mean Coupling". Journal of Climate. 23 (23): 6365–6381. Bibcode:2010JCli...23.6365S. doi: 10.1175/2010JCLI3804.1 . S2CID   55607191.
  4. Shaw, Tiffany (June 2017). "A Moist Static Energy Framework for Zonal-Mean Storm-Track Intensity". Journal of the Atmospheric Sciences. 75 (6): 1979–1994. doi:10.1175/JAS-D-17-0183.1. S2CID   125673468.
  5. Voigt, Aiko (January 2015). "Circulation response to warming shaped by radiative changes of clouds and water vapour". Nature. 8 (2): 102–106. Bibcode:2015NatGe...8..102V. doi:10.1038/ngeo2345.
  6. Shaw, Tiffany (August 2016). "Storm track processes and the opposing influences of climate change". Nature. 9 (9): 656–664. Bibcode:2016NatGe...9..656S. doi:10.1038/ngeo2783.
  7. "Tiffany Shaw named recipient of NSF CAREER Award". eesc.columbia.edu.
  8. "Shaw Wins 2015 Sloan Fellowship". apam.columbia.edu. 28 April 2017.
  9. "AMERICAN GEOPHYSICAL UNION ANNOUNCES RECIPIENTS OF THE 2017 UNION MEDALS, AWARDS AND PRIZES". AGU 100. July 2017.
  10. Alexander, M. J.; Geller, M.; McLandress, C.; Polavarapu, S.; Preusse, P.; Sassi, F.; Sato, K.; Eckermann, S.; Ern, M. (2010). "Recent developments in gravity-wave effects in climate models and the global distribution of gravity-wave momentum flux from observations and models". Quarterly Journal of the Royal Meteorological Society. 136 (650): 1103–1124. doi: 10.1002/qj.637 . ISSN   1477-870X. S2CID   33500010.
  11. Simpson, Isla R.; Shaw, Tiffany A.; Seager, Richard (2014-03-31). "A Diagnosis of the Seasonally and Longitudinally Varying Midlatitude Circulation Response to Global Warming". Journal of the Atmospheric Sciences. 71 (7): 2489–2515. Bibcode:2014JAtS...71.2489S. doi:10.1175/JAS-D-13-0325.1. ISSN   0022-4928. S2CID   40729555.
  12. Voigt, A.; Simpson, I. R.; Rivière, G.; O'Gorman, P. A.; Li, C.; Hwang, Y.-T.; Garfinkel, C. I.; Caballero, R.; Barnes, E. A. (September 2016). "Storm track processes and the opposing influences of climate change". Nature Geoscience. 9 (9): 656–664. Bibcode:2016NatGe...9..656S. doi:10.1038/ngeo2783. ISSN   1752-0908.
  13. Shaw, Tiffany A.; Perlwitz, Judith; Harnik, Nili (2010-08-23). "Downward Wave Coupling between the Stratosphere and Troposphere: The Importance of Meridional Wave Guiding and Comparison with Zonal-Mean Coupling". Journal of Climate. 23 (23): 6365–6381. Bibcode:2010JCli...23.6365S. doi: 10.1175/2010JCLI3804.1 . ISSN   0894-8755. S2CID   55607191.