Edmund Chang

About

Edmund Chang is a professor at Stony Brook University, affiliated with the Office of the Dean SOMAS Atmospheric Sciences. His main research focus is on investigating mid-latitude storms, including how to forecast them better from a few days out to a season, how they may change under global warming, and their societal impacts. He employs a wide range of tools in his research, such as analyses of gridded atmospheric analyses, state-of-the-art climate model simulations, examination of actual observations for validation, and dynamical studies using intermediate and mechanistic models to better understand observed phenomena. His research encompasses major topics such as extratropical cyclones—forecasting and impacts, the dynamics and life cycle of baroclinic waves and cyclones, storm track variability and trends, wave/mean flow interactions, and tropical/extratropical interactions, including tropical meteorology. Chang holds a PhD from Princeton University, earned in 1993, and has contributed extensively to the field through numerous research outputs, grants, and collaborations. His work is characterized by a comprehensive approach to understanding atmospheric dynamics and climate variability, with a particular emphasis on storm systems and their societal implications.

Research topics

• Environmental science
• Geology
• Climatology
• Atmospheric sciences
• Geography
• Meteorology

Selected publications

• Advances in the Prediction of MJO Teleconnections in the S2S Forecast Systems

  Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society · 2022 · 76 citations

  Abstract This study evaluates the ability of state-of-the-art subseasonal-to-seasonal (S2S) forecasting systems to represent and predict the teleconnections of the Madden–Julian oscillation and their effects on weather in terms of midlatitude weather patterns and North Atlantic tropical cyclones. This evaluation of forecast systems applies novel diagnostics developed to track teleconnections along their preferred pathways in the troposphere and stratosphere, and to measure the global and regiona…

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Statistical Relationship between Atmospheric Rivers and Extratropical Cyclones and Anticyclones

  Journal of Climate · 2020 · 60 citations

  Senior authorCorresponding

  Abstract Statistical relationships between atmospheric rivers (ARs) and extratropical cyclones and anticyclones are investigated on a global scale using objectively identified ARs, cyclones, and anticyclones during 1979–2014. Composites of circulation and moisture fields around the ARs show that a strong cyclone is located poleward and westward of the AR centroid, which confirms the close link between the AR and extratropical cyclone. In addition, a pronounced anticyclone is found to be located…

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Finding Storm Track Activity Metrics That Are Highly Correlated with Weather Impacts. Part I: Frameworks for Evaluation and Accumulated Track Activity

  Journal of Climate · 2020-09-15 · 24 citations

  articleOpen accessSenior author

  Abstract In the midlatitudes, storm tracks give rise to much of the high-impact weather, including precipitation and strong winds. Numerous metrics have been used to quantify storm track activity, but there has not been any systematic evaluation of how well different metrics relate to weather impacts. In this study, two frameworks have been developed to provide such evaluations. The first framework quantifies the maximum one-point correlation between weather impacts at each grid point and the as…

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• The Role of Extratropical Background Flow in Modulating the MJO Extratropical Response

  Journal of Climate · 2020-03-06 · 14 citations

  articleOpen accessSenior author

  Abstract The Madden–Julian oscillation (MJO) is the dominant mode of tropical intraseasonal variability. Many studies have found that the MJO, which acts as a tropical heating source, can excite Rossby waves that propagate into the midlatitude and modulate midlatitude circulation. The extratropical mean flow can modulate the MJO extratropical response. Rossby waves can grow or decay in different extratropical background flows, and the propagation of the Rossby waves also varies as the background…

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Finding Storm Track Activity Metrics That Are Highly Correlated with Weather Impacts. Part II: Estimating Precipitation Change Associated with Projected Storm Track Change over Europe

  Journal of Climate · 2022-01-28 · 10 citations

  article1st authorCorresponding

  Abstract The extratropical storm tracks cause much of the high-impact weather in the midlatitudes, and thus it is of interest to examine the weather impacts of projected storm track change. Here, a framework for quantifying storm track impact on precipitation over Europe developed in Part I for winter is extended to all four seasons and applied to estimate the precipitation impacts of CMIP5 and CMIP6 model projected storm track change under the high-emission scenarios. For autumn and winter, a s…

  PublisherDOI

Recent grants

• Analyzing the Structure and Evolution of Southern Hemisphere Synoptic Variability Using a New Reanalysis Observations Database

  NSF · $261k · 2004–2008

• New Perspectives on Storm Track Dynamics, Variability, and Change

  NSF · $573k · 2013–2018

• Dynamics of Interactions between Wave Packets and Explosive Cyclogenesis over Western North Pacific

  NSF · $446k · 2008–2013

Frequent coauthors

• Yanjuan Guo

  Guangzhou Education Bureau

  61 shared

• Toshiaki Shinoda

  51 shared

• Duane E. Waliser

  Jet Propulsion Laboratory

  49 shared

• Volkmar Wirth

  25 shared

• Cheng Zheng

  25 shared

• Michael Riemer

  25 shared

• Sukyoung Lee

  Pennsylvania State University

  25 shared

• Kyle L. Swanson

  Stanford University

  25 shared

Education

• Ph. D., Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences Program

  Princeton University

  1993

Awards & honors

• Nobel Peace Prize (2007)

Similar researchers at Stony Brook University

• Minghua Zhangh-89
• Paul Shepsonh-86
• Pavlos Kolliash-66