Yunji Zhang
Pennsylvania State University, PA·Earth & Environmental Science
Tropical cyclones, such as hurricanes and typhoons, cause more loss of life and property in the United States than any other weather hazard. Even after decades of research, scientists still don't fully understand how these storms form and strengthen.
- Fields
Earth & Environmental Science
Physics
- Topics
tropical cyclones
hurricanes
typhoons
- Grants
- 1 known grant, last ended Oct 2026
What they work on
- Measure how cloud-radiation forcing changes buoyancy, vertical motion and moist entropy in shallow convection, deep convection and stratiform rain, using convection-permitting numerical model experiments.
- Test the hypothesis that cloud-radiation forcing in stratiform rain and anvil clouds speeds up tropical cyclone formation, by switching radiative effects off and on in regional and global simulations.
- Assess how sensitive simulated storm-scale responses to cloud-radiation forcing are to model framework, physics settings and grid resolution, including how models represent cloud particles and precipitation.
More about the research
One overlooked factor is how clouds absorb and release heat as radiation. This interaction can speed up storm formation, but little is known about how it works at the scale of individual thunderstorms.
Why it matters
Coastal communities face growing losses from hurricanes and typhoons as coastal populations increase. A clearer picture of how clouds and radiation speed up storm formation could improve forecast models. Better forecasts may help reduce damage to lives, property and critical infrastructure.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
James Ruppert
University of Oklahoma, OK·Earth & Environmental Science
Determine whether real-world tropical Atlantic storm clusters self-organize or are forced by the large-scale environment, using SEA-POL C-band polarimetric radar aboard the R/V Meteor during PICCOLO.
Haiyan Jiang
Florida International University, FL·Earth & Environmental Science
Characterize how tropical cyclone rainfall distribution and asymmetry change before, during and after landfall, using statistical analysis of long-term satellite observations.
Andrea Jenney
Oregon State University, OR·Earth & Environmental Science
Test whether the net cooling cloud radiative effect over oceanic ITCZs comes partly from differences in energy carried away by ocean circulation between stormy and calm regions, using reanalyses and CESM2 slab-ocean simulations.
The school
Pennsylvania State University: 60 labs on PI Pages, $1.3B a year on research, 743 research doctorates a year.
Reach out
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