Dr Brian Farrell

Professor Farrell and co-workers are applying the methods of stochastic analysis of non-normal dynamical systems to study the statistical properties of the climate system including those processes that control the organization of storm tracks and the transfer of heat and momentum from subtropical regions to higher latitudes. Understanding these fundamental processes regulating the statistical properties of earth's climate give insight into what changes in the global climate will result from man's intervention in the climate system. A specific area of current study in dynamic meteorology at Harvard is the observed extreme sensitivity of regional climate to small perturbations of the atmosphere as was seen in the El Nino related anomalous precipitation in the southwest US in 1982, 1992 and 1998. By studying the equations governing the statistics of the weather we are learning how to make specific predictions of climate sensitivity building on what we have learned from studying the predictability of individual cyclones.