Caroline C. Ummenhofer

Last updated
Caroline C. Ummenhofer
Born
Caroline C. Ummenhofer

Freiburg, Germany
Alma materUniversity of Wales
Known forClimate Research/Physical Oceanography in the Indian Ocean
Scientific career
FieldsPhysical Oceanography
InstitutionsThe Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute (WHOI)
Thesis Southern Hemisphere Regional Precipitation and Climate Variability: Extremes, Trends and Predictability (unpublished) (2008)
Website https://ummenhofer.whoi.edu/

Caroline C. Ummenhofer is a physical oceanographer at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution where she studies extreme weather events with a particular focus on the Indian Ocean. [1] Ummenhofer makes an effort to connect her discoveries about predicting extreme weather events and precipitation to helping the nations affected. [2]

Contents

Early childhood and education

Ummenhofer was born in Freiburg, Germany. [3] In 2003, she graduated with a bachelor's degree in science from University of Wales, Bangor, UK, where she earned Joint Honours in Physical Oceanography and Marine Biology. [3] Ummenhofer received her PhD in Applied Mathematics at The University of New South Wales (UNSW), Sydney, Australia. [3] Ummenhofer wrote her thesis on the "Southern Hemisphere Regional Precipitation and Climate Variability: Extremes, Trends and Predictability," [4] which won the Uwe Radok Award by the Australian Meteorological and Oceanographic Society in the category of atmosphere/ocean/climate science. [1]

Career and research

Ummenhofer was a Postdoctoral Fellow of Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Mathematics and Statistics of Complex Systems. [1] She was a Vice-Chancellor Postdoctoral Fellowship at University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia. [1] Then Ummenhofer was a visiting fellow at Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation Marine and Atmospheric Research in Hobart. [1] Ummenhofer began working at WHOI in 2012. [3]

Ummenhofer teamed up with Timothy Walker, a history professor at University of Massachusetts Dartmouth, and Abigail Field, a history major, to collect climate data from log books from whaling ships in the 18th and 19th century. [1] Around 5,000 whaling ship logs are kept in Southern New England due to the bustling whaling ports in New Bedford and Nantucket, which are home to the New Bedford Whaling Museum and Nantucket Whaling Museum respectively. [5] Mean global temperature records begin around 1880, [6] and many developing countries by the Indian Ocean only have reliable meteorology starting in the 1970s. [5] Whaling logbooks hold daily accounts of vessel direction(s), landmarks, latitude/longitude, storm(s), precipitation, cloud direction, wind speed, wind direction, and temperature proxies. [7] [5] Temperature proxies include accounts of the tar used on the deck melting or fresh water on the ship freezing. [5] Ummenhofer and Walker must cross check around 650 log books from similar areas to come up with a 8-9 points of data, which they put into the University's database. [5] Whaling vessels are especially important to Ummenhofer work in the Indian Ocean because these ships sailed outside of established trade routes, and into more remote areas such as the Indian Ocean and Arctic Ocean. [7] With these much older records, climate scientists like Ummenhofer may create better computer models to research the effects of climate change on vulnerable areas like the Indian Ocean. [7]

Publications

In 2009, Caroline Ummenhofer and others published an article entitled "What causes southeast Australia's worst droughts?" in Geophysical Research Letters, which remains her most cited publication, and it is referenced in her nomination for the James B. Macelwane Medal. [2] This study connected extreme droughts in Australia with conditions in Indian Ocean instead of the Pacific Ocean. [8] Australia is currently in one of the most severe droughts in living memory coined the "Big Dry," which has been in effect since 1995. [8] Before this study, the predominant method for predicting droughts were caused by the El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) and opposing La Niña events. [8] Ummenhofer shows that the droughts taking place in Australia's western and southern border are instead caused by a lack of negative Indian Ocean Dipole (IOD) event. [8] Data shows that the last negative IOD occurred in 1992, right before the start of the "Big Dry." In this study, Ummenhofer also brings awareness to the warming of the Indian Ocean due to climate change, and how this will affect the weather patterns in countries surrounding this body of water. [8]

In 2016, L. Li, R. W. Schmitt, C. C. Ummenhofer, and K. B. Karnauskas published North Atlantic Salinity as a Predictor of Sahel Rainfall [9] which predicted precipitation in the U.S. Southwest more accurately than conventional forecasting. [10]

Selected publications

Awards and honors

Related Research Articles

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La Niña is an oceanic and atmospheric phenomenon that is the colder counterpart of El Niño, as part of the broader El Niño–Southern Oscillation (ENSO) climate pattern. The name La Niña originates from Spanish for "the girl", by analogy to El Niño, meaning "the boy". In the past, it was also called an anti-El Niño and El Viejo, meaning "the old man."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">El Niño–Southern Oscillation</span> Physical oceanography

El Niño–Southern Oscillation (ENSO) is an irregular periodic variation in winds and sea surface temperatures over the tropical eastern Pacific Ocean, affecting the climate of much of the tropics and subtropics. The warming phase of the sea temperature is known as El Niño and the cooling phase as La Niña. The Southern Oscillation is the accompanying atmospheric component, coupled with the sea temperature change: El Niño is accompanied by high air surface pressure in the tropical western Pacific and La Niña with low air surface pressure there. The two periods last several months each and typically occur every few years with varying intensity per period.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Antarctic oscillation</span> Climatic cycle over the Southern Ocean

The Antarctic oscillation, also known as the Southern Annular Mode (SAM), is a low-frequency mode of atmospheric variability of the southern hemisphere that is defined as a belt of strong westerly winds or low pressure surrounding Antarctica which moves north or south as its mode of variability.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pacific decadal oscillation</span> Recurring pattern of climate variability

The Pacific decadal oscillation (PDO) is a robust, recurring pattern of ocean-atmosphere climate variability centered over the mid-latitude Pacific basin. The PDO is detected as warm or cool surface waters in the Pacific Ocean, north of 20°N. Over the past century, the amplitude of this climate pattern has varied irregularly at interannual-to-interdecadal time scales. There is evidence of reversals in the prevailing polarity of the oscillation occurring around 1925, 1947, and 1977; the last two reversals corresponded with dramatic shifts in salmon production regimes in the North Pacific Ocean. This climate pattern also affects coastal sea and continental surface air temperatures from Alaska to California.

<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">Atlantic multidecadal oscillation</span> Climate cycle that affects the surface temperature of the North Atlantic

The Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation (AMO), also known as Atlantic Multidecadal Variability (AMV), is the theorized variability of the sea surface temperature (SST) of the North Atlantic Ocean on the timescale of several decades.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Indian Ocean Dipole</span> Climatic and oceanographic cycle affecting Southeast Asia, Australia and Africa

The Indian Ocean Dipole (IOD), also known as the Indian Niño, is an irregular oscillation of sea surface temperatures in which the western Indian Ocean becomes alternately warmer and then colder than the eastern part of the ocean.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Atmospheric river</span> Narrow corridor of concentrated moisture in the atmosphere

An atmospheric river (AR) is a narrow corridor or filament of concentrated moisture in the atmosphere. Other names for this phenomenon are tropical plume, tropical connection, moisture plume, water vapor surge, and cloud band.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Monsoon of South Asia</span> Monsoon in Indian subcontinent

The Monsoon of South Asia is among several geographically distributed global monsoons. It affects the Indian subcontinent, where it is one of the oldest and most anticipated weather phenomena and an economically important pattern every year from June through September, but it is only partly understood and notoriously difficult to predict. Several theories have been proposed to explain the origin, process, strength, variability, distribution, and general vagaries of the monsoon, but understanding and predictability are still evolving.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Climate change in Africa</span> Emissions, impacts and responses of the African continent related to climate change

Climate change in Africa is an increasingly serious threat as Africa is among the most vulnerable continents to the effects of climate change. Some sources even classify Africa as "the most vulnerable continent on Earth". This vulnerability is driven by a range of factors that include weak adaptive capacity, high dependence on ecosystem goods for livelihoods, and less developed agricultural production systems. The risks of climate change on agricultural production, food security, water resources and ecosystem services will likely have increasingly severe consequences on lives and sustainable development prospects in Africa. With high confidence, it was projected by the IPCC in 2007 that in many African countries and regions, agricultural production and food security would probably be severely compromised by climate change and climate variability. Managing this risk requires an integration of mitigation and adaptation strategies in the management of ecosystem goods and services, and the agriculture production systems in Africa.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ridiculously Resilient Ridge</span> Extremely persistent anticyclone over the Pacific Ocean

The "Ridiculously Resilient Ridge", sometimes shortened to "Triple R" or "RRR", is the nickname given to a persistent anticyclone that occurred over the far northeastern Pacific Ocean, contributing to the 2011–2017 California drought. The "Ridiculously Resilient Ridge" nickname was originally coined in December 2013 by Daniel Swain on the Weather West Blog, but has since been used widely in popular media as well as in peer-reviewed scientific literature.

Jessica E. Tierney (born 1982) is an American paleoclimatologist who has worked with geochemical proxies such as marine sediments, mud, and TEX86, to study past climate in East Africa. Her papers have been cited more than 2,500 times; her most cited work is Northern Hemisphere Controls on Tropical Southeast African Climate During the Past 60,000 Years. Tierney is currently an associate professor of geosciences and the Thomas R. Brown Distinguished Chair in Integrative Science at the University of Arizona and faculty affiliate in the University of Arizona School of Geography, Development and Environment Tierney is the first climatologist to win NSF's Alan T Waterman Award (2022) since its inception in 1975.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pacific Meridional Mode</span> Climate mode in the North Pacific

Pacific Meridional Mode (PMM) is a climate mode in the North Pacific. In its positive state, it is characterized by the coupling of weaker trade winds in the northeast Pacific Ocean between Hawaii and Baja California with decreased evaporation over the ocean, thus increasing sea surface temperatures (SST); and the reverse during its negative state. This coupling develops during the winter months and spreads southwestward towards the equator and the central and western Pacific during spring, until it reaches the Intertropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ), which tends to shift north in response to a positive PMM.

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References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 LaCapra, Véronique (22 May 2017). "Extreme Climate; A Conversation with WHOI's Caroline Ummenhofer". OceanUS Magazine. Archived from the original on 2017-06-04. Retrieved September 12, 2019.
  2. 1 2 3 Schmitt, Raymond W. (2018). "Caroline C. Ummenhofer". AGU100. Archived from the original on 2021-06-13. Retrieved 2019-09-13.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 "Alexander von Humboldt Foundation Honors Two WHOI Scientists". Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. December 12, 2014. Archived from the original on 2019-04-26. Retrieved 2019-09-13.
  4. Ummenhofer, Caroline C.; England, Matthew H. (2007). "Interannual Extremes in New Zealand Precipitation Linked to Modes of Southern Hemisphere Climate Variability". Journal of Climate. 20 (21): 5418–5440. Bibcode:2007JCli...20.5418U. doi: 10.1175/2007jcli1430.1 . ISSN   0894-8755.
  5. 1 2 3 4 5 Times, Doug Fraser Cape Cod. "Centuries-old whaling logs yield clues for modern-day climate studies". southcoasttoday.com. Retrieved 2019-09-14.
  6. Ferreira, Becky (2019-06-28). "Centuries-Old Sea Captain Diaries Are Confirming Modern Climate Science". Vice. Retrieved 2019-09-14.
  7. 1 2 3 Lubofsky, Evan (June 26, 2019). "Mining Climate Clues from our Whaling Past". Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. Archived from the original on 2019-07-01. Retrieved 2019-09-14.
  8. 1 2 3 4 5 Ummenhofer, Caroline C.; England, Matthew H.; McIntosh, Peter C.; Meyers, Gary A.; Pook, Michael J.; Risbey, James S.; Gupta, Alexander Sen; Taschetto, Andréa S. (2009). "What causes southeast Australia's worst droughts?". Geophysical Research Letters. 36 (4): L04706. Bibcode:2009GeoRL..36.4706U. doi: 10.1029/2008GL036801 . ISSN   1944-8007.
  9. Hahn, L.; Ummenhofer, C. C.; Kwon, Y.-O. (2018-09-16). "North Atlantic Natural Variability Modulates Emergence of Widespread Greenland Melt in a Warming Climate" (PDF). Geophysical Research Letters. 45 (17): 9171–9178. Bibcode:2018GeoRL..45.9171H. doi: 10.1029/2018GL079682 . hdl:1912/10638.
  10. Lippsett, Lonny (May 1, 2017). "To Forecast Rain, Look to the Ocean". Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. Archived from the original on 2020-07-29. Retrieved 2019-09-14.