Alexey Fedorov

About

Alexey Fedorov is a Professor of Oceanic and Atmospheric Sciences in the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences at Yale University and serves as a Senior Visiting Scientist at the LOCEAN/IPSL at Sorbonne University. His research aims to advance understanding of climate, ocean, and atmospheric dynamics in the context of contemporary global warming and past climate changes. He specializes in the problems of ocean and atmospheric general circulation, large-scale ocean-atmosphere interactions, climate predictability, and mechanisms of long-term climate variations. His group employs modern observational and numerical methodologies, including state-of-the-art general circulation models (GCMs), advanced theoretical methods, statistical data analysis, and conceptual climate models, to investigate physical processes that control climate and improve climate prediction. Fedorov's work encompasses a broad range of topics such as El Niño phenomena, Atlantic meridional overturning circulation (AMOC), ocean circulation and thermal structure, tropical cyclones, and the impacts of climate change on these systems. His contributions include investigating the effects of climate change on El Niño, understanding rapid climate shifts related to ocean circulation reorganizations, and studying the ocean's thermal structure through Lagrangian models. He has been recognized with awards such as the Packard Fellowship in Science and Engineering, the Guggenheim Fellowship, and the Presidential…

Research topics

• Oceanography
• Geology
• Environmental science
• Climatology

Selected publications

• Climate impacts of a weakened Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation in a warming climate

  Science Advances · 2020 · 313 citations

  While the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC) is projected to slow down under anthropogenic warming, the exact role of the AMOC in future climate change has not been fully quantified. Here, we present a method to stabilize the AMOC intensity in anthropogenic warming experiments by removing fresh water from the subpolar North Atlantic. This method enables us to isolate the AMOC climatic impacts in experiments with a full-physics climate model. Our results show that a weakened AMOC…

  DOI

• The El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO) Recharge Oscillator Conceptual Model: Achievements and Future Prospects

  Reviews of Geophysics · 2025-03-01 · 32 citations

  articleOpen access

  Abstract The recharge oscillator (RO) is a simple mathematical model of the El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO). In its original form, it is based on two ordinary differential equations that describe the evolution of equatorial Pacific sea surface temperature and oceanic heat content. These equations make use of physical principles that operate in nature: (a) the air‐sea interaction loop known as the Bjerknes feedback, (b) a delayed oceanic feedback arising from the slow oceanic response to wind…

  PublisherDOI

• Impacts of Atlantic meridional overturning circulation weakening on Arctic amplification

  Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences · 2024-09-16 · 16 citations

  articleOpen access

  Enhanced warming of the Arctic region relative to the rest of the globe, known as Arctic amplification, is caused by a variety of diverse factors, many of which are influenced by the Atlantic meridional overturning circulation (AMOC). Here, we quantify the role of AMOC changes in Arctic amplification throughout the twenty-first century by comparing two suites of climate model simulations under the same climate change scenario but with two different AMOC states: one with a weakened AMOC and anoth…

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Widening of Wind Stress Anomalies Amplifies ENSO in a Warming Climate

  Journal of Climate · 2024-11-04 · 7 citations

  articleOpen access

  Abstract Climate change simulations generally indicate the strengthening of El Niño–Southern Oscillation (ENSO) sea surface temperature (SST) variability through the twenty-first century, yet a robust physical mechanism explaining this change across different models is still lacking, and the projections for ENSO amplitude exhibit a large spread. Most commonly, changes in the background state of the tropical Pacific are invoked to explain these changes of ENSO. Here, we show that changes in the s…

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Tropical Indian Ocean drives Hadley circulation change in a warming climate

  National Science Review · 2024-10-22 · 6 citations

  articleOpen access

  The weakening and poleward expansion of the Hadley circulation (HC) are considered robust responses of atmospheric meridional circulation to anthropogenic warming. Climate impacts arising from these changes enhance drought conditions and reduce food production in the affected regions. Therefore, understanding the mechanisms of HC changes is critical to anticipating the resultant climate risks. First, we demonstrate that robust future HC changes in boreal winter, and the uncertainty in their futu…

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

Recent grants

• P2C2: Understanding Mean Patterns, Gradients, Variability and Mechanisms of Early Pliocene Warmth: The Role of Cloud Albedo

  NSF · $368k · 2014–2017

• Collaborative Research: Examining the links between Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation and Atlantic Multidecadal Variability

  NSF · $289k · 2018–2021

• Collaborative research: Quantifying Global and Regional Impacts of the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC) Slowdown in the 21st (twenty-first) Century

  NSF · $324k · 2021–2026

Frequent coauthors

• Brady Ferster

  Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique

  206 shared

• Éric Guilyardi

  Laboratoire d'Océanographie et du Climat : Expérimentations et Approches Numériques

  168 shared

• Emmanuel Mignot

  Stanford University

  155 shared

• Chris Brierley

  60 shared

• K. T. Lawrence

  Providence College

  53 shared

• Zhonghui Liu

  University of Hong Kong

  52 shared

• Yong Sun

  China Southern Power Grid (China)

  51 shared

• Timothy D. Herbert

  51 shared

Education

• Ph.D., Scripps Institution of Oceanography

  University of California San Diego

Awards & honors

• Packard Fellowship in Science and Engineering (2007-2014)
• Guggenheim Fellowship (2018)
• Presidential climate change research award of the “Make our…

Similar researchers at Yale University

• Shun-ichiro Karatoh-81
• Derek Briggsh-72
• David Evansh-66