Dr William J Gutowski

My research program focuses on role of the water cycle in the earth's climate dynamics. Special attention is devoted to water cycle dynamics in sub-continental domains, such as agricultural zones, that are typically the starting point for interfacing the science of the water cycle with human impacts of water-cycle variability. The program has three thrust areas: numerical simulation to understand surface-atmosphere coupling in the water cycle, analysis of observed water flow in the atmosphere, and improved computation of water transport in numerical models. Because water cycle processes on sub-continental domains orient the research, much of the effort has been devoted to using, testing and improving numerical simulation of these domains by so-called regional climate models (RCMs), which encompass all three thrust areas. The Project to Intercompare Regional Climate Simulations (PIRCS), which I coordinate with Profs. Arritt and Takle, is a focus of my RCM research. I have also been engaged in RCM simulation and analysis for the southern Africa, the Arctic and East Asia. Part of the motivation for this research stems from Iowa State University's foundation as a land-grant university, committed to science seeking appropriate interaction of human and natural society. The overall goal is to improve understanding of the water cycle as an important component of the earth's climate system and as a resource vital to human society.