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| Name |
Emanuel, Kerry A. |
| Location
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Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
| Primary Field
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Geophysics |
 Election Citation
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Emanuel is a preeminent hurricane expert. His theories have led to significant improvements in hurricane prediction and have altered scientific understanding of how the environment of a storm controls its maximum possible intensity. His research on the physics and dynamics of the tropical atmosphere and upper ocean has contributed a host of new ideas on how moist convection affects weather and climate. |
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Research Interests
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Most of my research focuses on the physics and dynamics of the tropical atmosphere and upper ocean. Among the problems that have interested me is the control of atmospheric water vapor by wet convection in the Tropics; this is crucial to understanding climate as water vapor is the strongest feedback in the climate system. The environmental factors that control the vertical air velocity in convective storms are not well understood; these velocities, in turn, determined how much condensed phase water is lofted and thus how effective convection is in moistening the atmosphere. These factors are simply not accounted for in any form in the current generation of global climate models. The physics of tropical cyclones continue to command my attention, especially as they bear on the response of these storms to changing climate. My research also suggests that global tropical cyclone activity is responsible for much of the turbulent mixing of the upper tropical oceans; this in turn is widely though to be the main driver of the ocean's thermohaline circulation. For this reason, tropical cyclones may play a critical role in climate dynamics. |
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