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Zhiming Kuang
- Associate Professor of Climate Science
- Faculty Associate, Harvard University Center for the Environment
Contact Information
| Office: | Geological Museum 455 |
| Email: | zkuang [ AT ] seas [ DOT ] harvard [ DOT ] edu |
| Office Phone: | (617) 495-2354 |
| Office Fax: | (617) 496-7411 |
Recruitment Status
Websites
Education
- B.S., Peking University, 1996
- Ph.D., Caltech, 2003
Research Interests
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- Applied Mathematics & Computational Science
- High Performance Computing
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- Modeling Physical/Biological Phenonema and Systems
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- Energy & Environmental Systems
- Oceans and Geophysics
Primary Teaching Area
Secondary Teaching Area
Profile
The main goal of my current research is to better understand and simulate how tropical convection interacts with the large-scale flow.
This interaction is key to the tropical circulation, particularly the rainfall distribution and its variability. These are important issues to society. Variations in the Asian monsoon rain, for example, can bring droughts or floods and affect the lives of billions of people.
Despite its well appreciated importance, our understanding of how tropical convection interacts with the large-scale flow remains poor; so is our ability to simulate this interaction. In our research, we use novel high-resolution numerical model experiments, together with observational data analysis, to guide development of theoretical models.
We are keen in applying our results to improve predictions—for example, those of the Asian monsoon and the El Nino Southern Oscillation (ENSO). Besides the meteorological implications of tropical convection, I'm also interested in its role in global chemistry.
Positions & Employment
Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences/Harvard Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences- 2010-Present: Associate Professor
- 2005-2010: Assistant Professor
- 2004-2005: Research Scientist
- 2003-2004: NOAA Postdoctoral Fellow
- 2000: Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Fellow
- 1996-2000: Graduate Research/Teaching Assistant
Honors
- NOAA Climate and Global Change Postdoctoral Fellowship, 2002
- Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Fellowship, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, 2000
- Li Ming Scholarship, California Institute of Technology, 1998
Selected Publications
- Andersen J. A., Z. Kuang, Moist Static Energy Budget of MJO-like disturbances in the atmosphere of a zonally symmetric aquaplanet, J. Climate, submitted.
- Romps, D. M., Z. Kuang, A transilient matrix for moist convection, J. Atmos. Sci., accepted.
- Kuang, Z., The wavelength dependence of the gross moist stability and the scale selection in the instability of column integrated moist static energy, J. Atmos. Sci., 68, 61-74, (2011).
- Solodoch A., W. R. Boos, Z. Kuang, E. Tziperman, Excitation of intraseasonal variability in the equatorial atmosphere by Yanai wave-group via WISHE-induced convection, J. Atmos. Sci., 68, 210-225, (2011).
- Blossey, P. N., Z. Kuang, D. M. Romps, Isotopic composition of water in the TTL in cloud-resolving simulations of an idealized tropical circulation, J. Geophys. Res., 115, D24309, (2010).
- Boos, W.R., Z. Kuang, Mechanisms of poleward-propagating, intraseasonal convective anomalies in cloud-system resolving models, J. Atmos. Sci., 67, 3673-3691 (2010).
- Nie J., W. R. Boos, Z. Kuang, Observational Evaluation of a Convective Quasi-Equilibrium View of Monsoons, J. Climate, 23, 4416-4428, (2010).
- Romps, D. M., Z. Kuang, Nature versus nurture in shallow convection, J. Atmos. Sci., 67, 1655-1666, (2010).
- Kuang, Z., Linear response functions of a cumulus ensemble to temperature and moisture perturbations and implication to the dynamics of convectively coupled waves, J. Atmos. Sci., 67, 941-962, (2010).
- Romps, D. M., Z. Kuang, Do undiluted convective plumes exist in the upper tropical troposphere? J. Atmos. Sci., 67, 468-484, (2010).
Faculty CV
KuangCV_July2010.pdf
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PDF document,
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