Presented on September 17, 2025, by

Dr. Hongwei Sun
Faculty
Department of Atmospheric Sciences
University of Hawai’i at Mānoa

ABSTRACT:

Numerical models have become important tools for scientists to understand the complex climate system. Various types of numerical models (e.g., Lagrangian vs. Eulerian models) in different scales (e.g., global climate models, large eddy simulations) have been developed to study climate science in different scales (e.g., large-scale circulations, small-scale cloud microphysics). In this talk, I will discuss the development and application of multiscale models for climate science from three perspectives:

(1) Using large eddy simulations (LES) to study how aerosol-cloud interactions response to global warming based on stratocumulus-to-cumulus transition process over the northeast Pacific Ocean.

(2) Using a Lagrangian trajectory model to quantify the stratospheric transport and turbulence, and explore the related dynamical drivers, such as quasi-biennial oscillation (QBO), Brewer-Dobson circulation (BDC).

(3) Creating a new Lagrangian plume model and coupling this Lagrangian plume model into a global model to build a multiscale plume-in-grid model, which can help conventional global models to resolve subgrid plumes (e.g., aircraft/rocket plumes).

Overall, my research aims to develop and apply state-of-the-art models to better study multiscale
processes in the climate system.

BIO:

Dr. Hongwei Sun is a Tenure-Track Assistant Professor in Atmospheric Sciences at the University of Hawaii at Manoa. Before that, Dr. Sun was a postdoc working with Dr. Robert Wood and Dr. Peter Blossey at the Department of Atmospheric Sciences, UW. Dr. Sun got his PhD from Harvard University in 2023, working with Dr. David Keith (PhD advisor) and Dr. Sebastian Eastham. Dr. Sun also holds a master’s degree from Tsinghua University (advisor: Dr. Yong Luo) and a bachelor’s degree from Sun Yat-Sen University.