Saravanan, R.

Biography

Educational Background

• Ph.D. (Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences), Princeton University, 1990
• Master of Science (Physics), Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur, 1986
• Additional Notes:
• Postdoctoral Research, Dept. of Applied Math. & Theoretical Physics, University of Cambridge, UK, 1990-93

Research Interests

• • Variability and predictability of climate on seasonal to millennial timescales,
  • coupled ocean-atmosphere interaction
  • large-scale dynamics of the atmosphere and the oceans

  My research deals with mathematical and physical aspects of the climate system, with a focus on atmospheric dynamics, climate modeling, and ocean-atmosphere interaction. I work with global and regional models of climate to study phenomena such as midlatitude storms, tropical cyclones, and global modes of low-frequency variability. An important goal of my research is to help improve predictions of weather and climate. Foreknowledge of sea surface temperature can be used to predict the evolution of atmospheric flow. Coupled climate models can help predict the evolution of sea surface temperatures on time scales of months to years.

   

  My recent research addresses the following science questions:

  - What is the influence of large-scale phenomena such as El Niño and the Atlantic Meridional Mode on tropical cyclone activity?

  - Do mesoscale eddies in the ocean affect atmospheric storms in the middle latitudes?

  - Can statistical and machine learning approaches be used to analyze the relationship between atmospheric state and satellite measurements of rainfall?

  I use a hierarchy of weather and climate models running on supercomputers, as well as statistical data analysis, to answer these questions.

   

  Additional information on my research and other interests can be found on my personal TAMU web page: http://people.tamu.edu/~sarava/>

Awards & Honors

• College of Geosciences Distinguished Research Award, Texas A&M University, 2015

Selected Publications

• Patricola, C.M., R. Saravanan, P. Chang, 2018: The response of Atlantic tropical cyclones to suppression of African easterly waves, Geophysical Research Letters, 45, 471-479, 10.1002/2017GL076081
• Patricola, C.M., P. Chang, R. Saravanan, 2016: Degree of simulated suppression of Atlantic tropical cyclones modulated by flavour of El Niño, Nature Geoscience, 9, 155-160, doi:10.1038/ngeo2624
• Ma, X., P. Chang, R. Saravanan, R. Montuoro, J.-S. Hsieh, D. Wu, X. Lin, L. Wu, Z. Jing, 2015: Distant influence of Kuroshio eddies on North Pacific weather patterns? Scientific Reports, 5, 17785, doi:10.1038/srep17785
• Wang, Y., R. Zhang, and R. Saravanan, 2014: Asian pollution climatically modulates mid-latitude cyclones following hierarchical modelling and observational analysis. Nature Communications, 5, 3098, doi:10.1038/ncomms4098
• Balaguru, K., P. Chang, R. Saravanan, and L. R. Leung, 2012: Ocean barrier layers’ effect on tropical cyclone intensification, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 109, 14343-14347 doi:10.1073/pnas.1201364109
• Magnusdottir, G., C. Deser, and R. Saravanan, 2004: The effects of North Atlantic SST and sea-ice anomalies on the winter circulation in CCM3: Part I: Main features and storm-track characteristics of the response. Journal of Climate, 17, 857-876.
• Giannini, A., R. Saravanan, and P. Chang, 2003: Oceanic forcing of Sahel rainfall on interannual to interdecadal time scales. Science, 302, 1027-1030.
• Saravanan, R., and J. C. McWilliams, 1998: Advective ocean–atmosphere interaction: an analytical stochastic model with implications for decadal variability. Journal of Climate, 11, 165–188.
• Saravanan, R., 1993: Equatorial superrotation and the maintenance of general circulation in two–level models. Journal of the Atmospheric Sciences, 50, 1211–1227.
• See ResearcherID Profile for a full list of publications: http://www.researcherid.com/rid/G-8879-2012