Project summary

Climate change is expected to increase the intensity and frequency of extreme precipitation events, affecting stormwater management, water quality, public health, and transportation. In the tropics, the Walker Circulation—the atmospheric branch of the El Niño-Southern Oscillation—plays a dominant role in extreme precipitation. While climate models underestimate extreme precipitation compared to observations, they project a weakening of the Walker Circulation, despite recent observations suggesting its strengthening. Under the guidance of Dr. Jung-Eun Lee at Brown University, I used the GFDL Idealized Moist Spectral Atmospheric Model to simulate varying Walker Circulation strengths under increasingly warmer global temperatures. This work identifies key relationships between the strength of the Walker Circulation, the sea surface temperature gradient, and the frequency and intensity of extreme precipitation.