Research interests
Climate System Science, Earth System modelling, Terrestrial carbon cycle, Carbon-Climate feedback, Fire-climate interactions
Climate System Science
The Climate system contains many spheres and each sphere interact with other spheres.
These interactions determine the climate status.
We are exploring hidden linkages between spheres, for example,
Cold surge ←→ Frost damage
Snow ←→ Fire
Stomata ←→ Arctic warming
Earth System Modelling
The global environment is a complex and dynamic system. Earth system modelling is needed to help understand changes in interacting sub-systems, elucidate the influence of human activities, and explore possible future changes. Integrated assessment of the environment and human development is arguably the most difficult and most important systems problem faced.
We are employing Earth system modelling to predict future climate states.
Carbon-Climate Feedback
The “carbon-climate feedback” refers to the effect that a changing climate has on the carbon cycle, which impacts atmospheric CO2, which in turn changes further the climate.
Currently, land and ocean carbon uptake is up to 50%, but this ability would be changeable with ongoing climate change. To meet carbon neutrality by 2050, future carbon uptake changes and carbon-climate feedbacks should be taken into account.
Fire-Climate Interactions
Fire can happen and spread when the atmospheric environment is dry, but this mechanism is different region by region. It is known that drought leads to the most extreme cases of fire spreading, however, for example, Kim et al. 2020 Science Advances found that earlier snow melting leads to large-scale fire activity over southeastern Siberia.
On the other hand, Kim et al. 2019 GRL found that the sensitivity of local sea surface temperature to precipitation is varying with the seasonality of air-sea interaction in Indonesia, therefore October is the most sensitive month in fire activity related to local sea surface temperature. Likewise, each region over the globe has different fire-climate interactions related to meteorological conditions.