Uma Bhatt, Professor, Climate Variability & Change

e-mail: usbhatt@alaska.edu  , Office: Akasofu 315

I use long-term climate observations and climate models to investigate processes of climate variability and change. Most of my current projects are multi-disciplinary and investigate the role of climate in recent changes in arctic tundra vegetation and Alaska glaciers. I regularly teach 'Atmospheric Dynamics I' and 'Climate and Climate Change'. I also lead a 1-credit seminar class called 'Climate Journal Club', where students, postdocs and faculty discuss timely climate topics over coffee and sweets on Friday afternoons.

professional web page: http://www2.gi.alaska.edu/~bhatt/professional.html

Richard Collins, Professor, Laser remote sensing of atmospheres

e-mail: rlcollins@alaska.edu, Office: Akasofu 301

My primary interest is the meteorology of the middle and upper atmosphere and the remote sensing of this region. Working with students at the Lidar Research Lab at Poker Flat Research Range, I develop and operate laser radar (lidar) systems to probe the atmosphere yielding measurements of temperature, density and concentration of species. We also develop the analysis tools for studying these measurements and associated data sets. These studies include the following topics; the aeronomy of the summer polar atmosphere and noctilucent clouds, the thermal structure of the stratosphere and mesosphere, variability and waves in the middle atmosphere, and the impact of the aurora on the upper atmosphere. I have also participated in studies of forest fires, volcanic aerosols, and fish. I teach "Weather and Climate of Alaska" (ATM101) and "Atmospheric Radiation" (ATM613), as well as courses on the meteorology of the middle atmosphere and environmental measurement systems.

professional web page: http://www.gi.alaska.edu/profile/richard-collins

Javier Fochesatto, Associate Professor & Department Chair, Boundary Layer Meterorology

e-mail: gjfochesatto@alaska.edu Office: Akasofu Room 317

My research focuses in the field of Boundary Layer (BL) Meteorology and surface-BL dynamic/radiative feedbacks including gases, aerosols and low level tropospheric clouds. Current research projects include studies of micrometeorological influences of small scale processes (e.g., drainage flows) on the Arctic Stable-BL, dynamic exchanges (e.g., downward mixing) on the Arctic Summer-BL during Boreal forest fires, evapotranspiration in Arctic wet-lands (e.g. Tundra and Taiga), long-range aerosol transport to the Arctic (e.g., ARCTAS-2008), aerosol-cloud interaction in the Marine BL (e.g., VOCALS-RExc) and aerosol spectroscopy by Laser Raman spectroscopy, IR-microscopy and SEM techniques. An important component of my research is devoted to field experiments in collaboration with Arctic researchers and abroad and in developing new laser remote sensing instruments (e.g., Full Stokes Polarimetric Lidar) and aerosol spectroscopy (e.g., Polarization Sensitive Raman Spectroscopy).

professional web page: http://www.gi.alaska.edu/directory/gilberto-fochesatto​

Nicole Mölders, Professor, Mesoscale and land-surface modeling

E-mail: cmoelders@alaska.edu, Office: Akasofu 309

Since 1988, I have been involved in numerical modeling of the physics and chemistry of the atmosphere. I have used mesoscale models to investigate human and natural (e.g. fire, volcanic eruptions, anthropogenic emissions, land-use changes) impacts on weather, air quality and/or climate. In close cooperation with hydrologists and geologists I coupled a hydrologic and meteorological model and developed an integrative hydrometeorological model. I worked with computer scientists on optimizing chemistry transport models for parallel computers. I led several projects to study dry deposition of reactive atmospheric trace gases, water availability under changed climate conditions, the impact of land-use changes on evapotranspiration, cloud and precipitation formation, and impacts of various emission sources on air quality and weather. Since 1995, in Germany and the United States, I have taught cloud physics, satellite meteorology, physical hydrometeorology, paleoclimatology, parameterization of hydrometerological processes, numerical modeling and parameterization methods, mesoscale dynamics, introduction to computational meteorology and introduction to atmospheric sciences.

professional web page: http://www2.gi.alaska.edu/~molders/

Igor Polyakov, Professor, Climate and Global Change of the Arctic Ocean

e-mail: ivpolyakov@alaska.edu, office: Akasofu 408.

The primary focus of my recent research is climate change and variability in the Arctic and sub-Arctic regions. My high-latitude climate studies focus on polar amplification of global warming, long-term variability of the Arctic atmosphere, ice, and ocean, their interconnections, and linkages with the lower latitude processes. Previously my work has addressed problems of high-latitude tides, their interactions with ice, and contribution of tides to general oceanic circulation and structure of large-scale oceanic fields. I also lead a big observational program called NABOS (Nansen and Amundsen Basins Observational System) which provides an assessment of circulation, water mass transformations, and key mechanisms of variability in the Arctic Ocean on a broad range of time scales. NABOS observations were imperative for detecting and tracking exceptionally strong recent warming of the Arctic Ocean. These observations suggest that the Arctic Ocean is in transition towards a new, warmer state.

professional web page: http://www.iarc.uaf.edu/people/igor

Xiangdong Zhang, Professor, Climate and Global Change

e-mail: xzhang9@alaska.edu, Office: Akasofu 313

Dr. Xiangdong Zhang is interested in climate variability and global warming forced climate changes. Specifically, his recent research projects have focused on Arctic-global climate interactions and rapid climate change, tropical and North Pacific decadal variability, global warming forced extreme climate and weather events, Arctic and global freshwater and energy budgets and pathways, storm track dynamics and its interaction with large-scale circulations, and treatment/parameterization of physics in climate models. He has collaborated with numerous national and international colleagues in his research. Recent major accomplishments include the detection of a spatial shift of atmospheric circulation and its driving role in recent rapid Arctic climate change, identification of poleward shift of storm tracks and intensification of storm activity, evaluation of future Arctic sea ice changes by the IPCC AR4 models, and analysis of Arctic sea ice mass balance, heat and freshwater budgets and pathways.

professional web page: http://www.iarc.uaf.edu/people/xzhang

Bill Simpson, Ph.D., Associated Faculty

We are an active research program involving application of spectroscopy to study environmental / atmospheric chemistry. Our group is a great place to learn about both technical aspects of experimental chemistry and scientific aspects of air and Arctic chemistry research. We have developed systems using state-of-the-art laser spectroscopy (cavity ring-down spectroscopy, CRDS) to probe the chemistry of nitrogen radicals in the Arctic. This chemistry is important to find the fate of nitrogen pollution (NOx pollution) at high latitudes. We also use passive spectroscopy (differential optical absorption spectroscopy, DOAS) to study the chemistry of reactive halogen radicals in the Arctic. This chemistry is related to mercury deposition to the Arctic and is expected to change significantly as the Arctic sea ice changes with climate change. Besides our focus on field work we also have a number of other laboratory projects available to students. We have a great deal of experience building instruments, making them work, and making discoveries with them. I believe that I would be a good teacher of these skills as well as being an good advisor to both graduate and undergraduate students.