New DOE Early Career Award Recipient Will Use ARM Data to Study Thunderstorms

 
Published: 15 September 2017
Atmospheric scientist Jiwen Fan is one of 59 recipients of the 2017 U.S. Department of Energy Early Career Research Program award.

Jiwen Fan is one of the winners of a 2017 Early Career Research Program award from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) to study severe thunderstorms in the central United States. Her work will take into account data from the ARM Facility’s Southern Great Plains atmospheric observatory and other sources such as the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

A Pacific Northwest National Laboratory atmospheric scientist and an ARM User Executive Committee member, Fan is one of 59 researchers from various fields nationwide to receive the award this year. The award will fund Fan’s research on the formation and evolution of thunderstorms that produce large hail, damaging winds, tornadoes, and torrential rainfall. Drawing on powerful supercomputers managed by DOE, Fan will conduct an unprecedented close-up look at how drought, extreme rainfall, city growth, and distant wildfires help shape these storms.

Fan previously used ARM data to look at how atmospheric particles interact with and influence clouds, and how those effects are simulated in models. As part of the GoAmazon 2014/2015 field campaign, she studied the effects of an urban area on convection and precipitation over the Amazon region.

The Early Career Research Program, now in its eighth year, is managed by the DOE Office of Science and awards research grants to young scientists and engineers at U.S. universities and national laboratories. The grants are designed to bolster the nation’s scientific workforce by providing support to exceptional researchers during the crucial early years of their careers.

Fan will receive $2.5 million over the next five years to further her research. The funds will support Fan and several postdoctoral research associates.

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The ARM Climate Research Facility is a DOE Office of Science user facility. The ARM Facility is operated by nine DOE national laboratories.