Following the weather
From the violence of Jupiter’s Great Red Spot to Earth’s own extreme weather, Pedram Hassanzadeh is investigating atmospheric vortices, those swirling air masses that make the weather go — and sometimes make it stop. In September, Hassanzadeh began two years as a Ziff Environmental Fellow at the Harvard University Center for the Environment. His project is an examination of how extreme weather events work and how they will be affected by global climate change. Specifically, Hassanzadeh is thinking about the role of dynamics and studying atmospheric blocks: clockwise-rotating, high-pressure systems that stall and back up weather behind them. The blocks can last several days or even weeks, leading to flooding or seemingly endless heat waves, such as those that proved deadly in Europe in 2003 and in Russia in 2010. Hassanzadeh, working with Brian F. Farrell, the Robert P. Burden Professor of Meteorology, and Zhiming Kuang, the Gordon McKay Professor of Atmospheric and...