UCLA is a world-class center for scientific climate research. Various departments, research groups, and institutes are devoted to tackling climate related problems.

Return to Climate Sensitivity Research Lounge

Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences Department

Wolfgang Buermann: Land and Atmosphere Exchanges
Dr. Buermann's research focuses on controls of energy, water and carbon exchanges between the land surfaces and atmosphere and associated vegetation dynamics. His research is relevant to several environmental problems, including changes in near-surface climate, biodiversity patterns, and the carbon cycle.

Michael Ghil: Theoretical Climate Dynamics (TCD) Group
Dr. Ghil's group studies climate dynamics from intraseasonal to millennial time scales using the methods of dynamical systems theory. These are applied to observations, numerical models, and experiments.

Alex Hall: Climate Sensitivity Research Lounge (CSRL)
CSRL's research is focused on reducing uncertainties associated with global climate change. The group also develops regional earth system models and studies the climate from a regional perspective to lay the groundwork for an understanding of climate change at scales most relevant to people and ecosystems.

Kuo-Nan Liou: Radiative Transfer, Remote Sensing, and Cloud-Aerosol Interactions with Climate
Professor Liou 's research involves atmospheric radiative transfer, the remote sensing of clouds and aerosols, and the interactions between climate, clouds, and aerosols. Theoretical, modeling, and satellite-based approaches are employed to advance our knowledge of these topics. Professor Liou also serves as Director of the Joint Institute for Regional Earth System Science and Engineering (JIFRESSE).

James McWilliams: Oceanic Research Group (ORG)
ORG is a base for a broad, cooperative effort to develop, test, and apply comprehensive numerical modeling capabilities for the Earth's climate for periods extending over previous millennia, the present, and the coming centuries of anthropogenically induced changes. Development of the Regional Oceanic Modeling System (ROMS) has also taken place primarily within ORG's Center for Earth System Research.

Roberto Mechoso: Climate Modeling
Dr. Mechoso 's group engages in numerical modeling of the global atmosphere to simulate coupled atmosphere-ocean interactions, stratospheric dynamics, impacts of cloud on the climate system, and monsoon systems.

J. David Neelin: Climate Systems Interactions (CSI) Group
The CSI group studies interactions between various climate system components through hierarchical climate modeling. A hierarchy of successively simpler models is built until the phenomenon of interest has been distilled down to its essential elements.

Yongkang Xue: Land-Atmosphere Interactions and Regional Climate Change
Dr. Xue's group focuses on land surface processes, atmosphere-land surface coupling, hydrometeorological prediction, monsoons, and biological responses to climate conditions. Regions of active research include West Africa, South America, the Continental U.S., and East Asia.

Civil and Environmental Engineering Department

Steven Margulis: Hydrology and Hydrometeorology
Dr. Margulis's research covers the broad areas of surface hydrology and hydrometeorology. His research group focuses on two primary goals: 1) to improve the ability to characterize important hydrologic states and fluxes through the combined application of remote sensing and modeling and 2) to better understand the underlying mechanisms responsible for their variability in time and space.

Geography Department

Glen MacDonald: Biogeography
Dr. MacDonald 's group focuses on causes and impacts of climate change. Current projects are based in such locations as: the Arctic of Alaska, Canada, Eurasia, California, Hawaii, Utah and Mali.

Marilyn N. Raphael: Physical Geography, Climatology, Global Climate Change, and Quantitative Methods
Dr. Raphael's research interests include: Santa Ana winds, global climate change and variability, climate modeling, atmospheric circulation dynamics, southern hemisphere atmospheric circulation and climate, and Antarctic sea ice variability. 

Laurence C. Smith: High-Latitude Climate Change
Dr. Smith's interests focus on the effects of climate change on high-latitude environments, specifically the hydrologic interactions between the land surface, atmosphere and oceans, and the response of those linkages to climate warming.

Institute of the Environment and Sustainability (IoES)

The IoES is an intellectual community whose members and constituents represent every area of specialty touching on the environment, encompassing a broad array of policy concerns and outreach avenues.

The Center for Climate Change Solutions (CCCS) is a branch of the IoES integrating climate science and other disciplines to facilitate interaction between researchers and decision-makers and promote action on climate change issues in state and local regions.

Joint Institute for Regional Earth System Science and Engineering (JIFRESSE)

JIFRESSE is a scientific collaboration between UCLA and NASA抯 Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) to improve understanding and to develop future projections about global climate change and its effect on regional climates and environments. The Institute serves as a center for multi-disciplinary research focused on the Southern California region, including studies of the atmosphere, coastal ocean and land surface, and the physical, chemical and biological interactions among them. 

More Climate Research and Applications at UCLA

UCLA's Sustainable LA Grand Challenge is a large, cross-campus interdisciplinary research initiative aimed at achieving for Los Angeles 100% reliance on renewable energy and local water while protecting and enhancing the region's biodiversity and public health.

UCLA's Emmett Institute on Climate Change and the Environment is the nation's first law school to dedicate advancement in law and policy exclusively towards climate change.  The center tackles local, national and world-wide issues regarding climate change by promoting research and development of new policy tools and disciplines.

For comments regarding the UCLA Climate Science Portal, please contact:  Katharine Reich