- This event has passed.
Prof. Reed Ogrosky, Virginia Commonwealth University – Special Applied Math Seminar
October 10, 2018 @ 4:00 pm - 5:00 pm
Title: Modeling and data analysis of convectively coupled equatorial waves and the Madden-Julian oscillation
Abstract: Rainfall and clouds, i.e. convection, in the tropics occur on many spatial and temporal scales. A significant portion of tropical rainfall that occurs on daily and weekly timescales can be attributed to convectively coupled equatorial waves, while much of the tropical rainfall that occurs on intraseasonal timescales can be attributed to the Madden-Julian oscillation (MJO). In this talk I will discuss methods for identifying these rainfall events in observational data that make use of PDE theories for the tropical atmosphere. These methods will also be used to compare model results with observations, and it will be shown that a recent model for the MJO is able to reproduce many features of observed events. This is joint work with Sam Stechmann at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and Scott Hottovy at the US Naval Academy.