Due to the COVID-19 Pandemic, the University has instruction to cancel all in-person events through the Spring semester to adhere to city and state orders limiting public gatherings. Events still running must now take place Online— listed events will include a link in which one may access the Online webspace:

To view Mr. Westgate’s defense, enter his Online chatroom via Microsoft Teams— it will open at 11:00 am on Friday, April 24, 2020.

Multidecadal Climate Variability in Observed and Simulated Near-Surface Air Temperature and Sea-Level Pressure

Mr. Andrew Westgate
University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee
MS Graduate Student – Teaching Assistant

“Accurate estimates of multidecadal climate variability generated internally within the climate system are required to gauge anthropogenic contribution to warming trends and to develop efficient strategies to mitigate climate change. Previous analyses of historical surface air temperatures (SAT) showed that numerical climate prediction models lack a pronounced global mode of observed internal variability — the stadium wave (SW), — which represents a multidecadal undulation originating in the North Atlantic and propagating to other regions of the globe. The present study extends these analyses by exploring co-variability of SAT and sea-level pressure (SLP) within the SW. Addition of SLP data does not substantially affect the SAT component of SW, which is essentially identical to its SAT-only counterpart. The SW’s SLP features point to atmospheric teleconnections and dynamical mechanisms behind its global propagation. Finally, the climate model analogs of SW exhibit quasi-stationary, often smaller-scale patterns relative to observations, and lack of global propagation.”

Committee Members:
Profs. Sergey Kravtsov (Advisor); Clark Evans & Paul Roebber

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