Lantao Sun
Colorado State University-Fort Collins, CO·Earth & Environmental Science
Arctic sea ice at the end of summer has shrunk from about 7 million square miles in 1980 to about 5 million in 2022. Exposed dark ocean absorbs more sunlight, which warms the Arctic further.
- Fields
Earth & Environmental Science
Physics
- Topics
Arctic sea ice
sea ice loss
Arctic amplification
- Grants
- 1 known grant, through Jun 2027
What they work on
- Determine how much Arctic sea ice loss affects summer atmospheric circulation and the jet stream, and through what mechanisms, using DAMIP and PAMIP climate model simulations.
- Estimate when sea ice–driven changes in summer circulation will become evident, and compare them with the direct effect of greenhouse warming using new Community Earth System Model (CESM) experiments.
- Separate sea ice effects on cyclones from effects on anticyclones, high-pressure systems linked to heat waves, and relate them to changes in summer heat waves.
More about the research
Arctic warming can weaken the jet stream, the fast high-altitude wind band that steers weather, and push it southward. Most research on this has focused on winter cold snaps and snowstorms. Work by this PI and others suggests the jet stream may weaken in summer too. That would weaken the cyclones and anticyclones, rotating low- and high-pressure systems, that travel across the middle latitudes. Because greenhouse warming of the atmosphere can cause similar effects, the two causes must be separated.
Why it matters
Summer heat waves threaten health and infrastructure in midlatitude regions. Clarifying whether and how Arctic sea ice loss changes summer weather patterns and heat waves could improve projections that communities use to prepare for and adapt to climate change. It could also help separate the role of sea ice from greenhouse warming in observed extreme weather.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
Qinghua Ding
University of California-Santa Barbara, CA·Earth & Environmental Science
Develop regional models of summertime Arctic sea ice that combine global observational data through machine learning, to forecast ice from weeks to a season ahead and find how far ahead prediction is possible.
Gan Zhang
University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, IL·Earth & Environmental Science
Map the limits of how far ahead high-impact tropical and mid-latitude cyclones can be predicted, using new AI weather forecasting models, and identify the starting conditions that control storm development.
Gary Lackmann
North Carolina State University, NC·Earth & Environmental Science
Assess how a warming climate shifts tropical cyclone activity and landfall locations in the North Atlantic, using observations and global climate model simulations that resolve individual storms.
The school
Colorado State University-Fort Collins: 23 labs on PI Pages, $466M a year on research, 276 research doctorates a year.
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