Faculty Spotlight: Yutian Wu, Climate Modeler and Atmospheric Scientist
Yutian Wu is an associate research scientist at the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory at the Columbia Climate Institute and a professor in the Master of Science in Sustainable Development program. She is using climate models to study the movement of air pollutants through the atmosphere.
Understanding climate models can be a daunting task for the untrained eye. Building these models requires skilled professionals. Yutian Wu, Associate Researcher at Columbia Climate Institute Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, spent nearly 15 years studying atmospheric science and building climate models. She started out studying physics and then tried to apply her math background to more practical subjects.More recently, Wu’s research aimed to understand how Arctic sea ice would affect extreme weather in north america and how monsoons affect the transport of pollutants from the Earth’s surface to the stratosphere.
Wu is currently teaching “Climate Science for Policymakers: Modeling, Analysis, and Applications” at the Faculty Master of Science in Sustainability program, offered by the School of Professional Studies in partnership with the Climate Institute.
How and when did you become interested in atmospheric science and climate change?
My atmospheric science and climate change journey began in my first year of graduate school. I studied physics as an undergrad – more specifically condensed matter physics. In graduate school, I wanted to explore areas more relevant to my everyday life while continuing my passion for physics and mathematics. Studying atmospheric science gave me the opportunity to do just that.
Your resume mentions your passion for the intersection of education and research, with a long-term goal of advancing mathematics and data analysis in K-12 and undergraduate education. Where did your interest in the overlap of these two fields come from?
Quantitative skills such as mathematics, physics and data analysis play a vital role in my own atmospheric science and climate change research. And I do think that perspective can be broadened broadly through quantitative skills. So I want to convey the same message in K-12 and undergraduate education. To this end, I provide research opportunities for undergraduates so they can work with real atmospheric data and solve research problems. I also work with middle school and high school teachers on research projects related to atmospheric rivers and Arctic sea ice. This presents a great opportunity for school teachers not only to research cutting-edge science, but also to improve classroom curricula by incorporating real data and phenomenon-based learning into classroom instruction.
Wu’s class of 2021 is visiting Lamont.
In 2017, the National Science Foundation awarded your project “Monsoons and the Upper-Tropospheric Substratosphere,” a prestigious CAREER grant for five years. Can you share the goals of your project?
As most of you probably know, monsoons play an important role in bringing rainfall to populated areas, including Asia and North America. But less well known to the general public, monsoons also transport pollutants and chemicals such as aerosols into the stratosphere, affecting the climate and chemistry of the stratosphere—for example, the formation of stratospheric ozone. Therefore, the goal of my NSF CAREER project is to study, through observations and climate model experiments, how monsoons affect transport from the surface to the stratosphere.
Now, as we head into 2023, how is the project progressing? What challenges have you faced? What are you most proud of?
We have made great progress on this project. We now have a better understanding of how and why monsoons efficiently transport pollutants into the stratosphere. Some challenges are, for example, how to design numerical model experiments to test hypotheses, how to properly interpret model results, and how to use model results to help understand observations. I am proud that my group members all collaborated intelligently, overcoming challenges and producing novel and interesting results. I am now really looking forward to continuing the research project, especially testing some hypotheses during the recent field events.
Why do students take your class? What will students learn from it?
Climate models are primary and important tools for predicting global and regional climate variability and variability, assessing climate-related risks, and guiding adaptation to climate variability and change. Our courses provide a fundamental understanding of the rationale for climate models and their applications. For example, we will discuss how the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) models are constructed, how future climate projections are made, how confident we are in future projections, what the uncertainties are, and how information is used in future climate projections Bringing shared decision-making and sustainable development management. Throughout the course, students will have opportunities to analyze future climate projections, assess climate-related risks and make their own assessments and decisions.
Frederique Fyhr is an intern MSc in Sustainability Management Columbia University courses.
