Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences

Confidence in projections of future climate change primarily comes from changes that are directly connected to Earth’s energy imbalance, such as rising surface temperatures. Inversely, uncertainty in future climate change at regional scales results from uncertainty in how energy is distributed throughout the climate system by the atmospheric circulation. My dissertation focuses on how and why three regional aspects of the climate system, namely jetstreams, clouds, and storm tracks, contribute to this uncertainty around future change, as well as what the role of atmospheric waves is in shaping the response of these aspects.