Maria J. Molina

University of Maryland, College Park | UMD, UMCP, University of Maryland College Park · Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Science

This is a test-case study assessing the ability of deep learning methods to generalize to a future climate (end of 21st century) when trained to classify thunderstorms in model output representative of the present-day climate. A convolutional neural network (CNN) was trained to classify strongly-rotating thunderstorms from a current climate created...

Consequences from a slowdown or collapse of the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC) could include modulations to El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) and development of the Pacific Meridional Overturning Circulation (PMOC). Despite potential ramifications to the global climate, our understanding of the influence of various AMOC and PM...

Extreme weather events have been demonstrated to be increasing in frequency and intensity across the globe and are anticipated to increase further with projected changes in climate. Solar climate intervention strategies, specifically stratospheric aerosol injection (SAI), have the potential to minimize some of the impacts of a changing climate whil...

Extreme precipitation events, including those associated with weather fronts, have wide-ranging impacts across the world. Here we use a deep learning algorithm to identify weather fronts in high resolution Community Earth System Model (CESM) simulations over the contiguous United States (CONUS), and evaluate the results using observational and rean...

This study focuses on assessing the representation and predictability of North American weather regimes, which are persistent large-scale atmospheric patterns, in a set of initialized subseasonal reforecasts created using the Community Earth System Model version 2 (CESM2). K-means clustering was used to extract four key North American (10-70°N, 150...

Effective science communication for a multilingual population requires more than language translation, it also requires being mindful of cultural communication styles. This study tested the impact that communication style has on feelings of inclusion, learning, and engagement in the Earth sciences for Hispanic and Latinx adults. An online survey wi...

The potential for multiyear prediction of impactful Earth system change remains relatively underexplored compared to shorter (subseasonal to seasonal) and longer (decadal) timescales. In this study, we introduce a new initialized prediction system using the Community Earth System Model version 2 (CESM2) that is specifically designed to probe potent...

The potential for multiyear prediction of impactful Earth system change remains relatively underexplored compared to shorter (subseasonal to seasonal) and longer (decadal) timescales. In this study, we introduce a new initialized prediction system using the Community Earth System Model Version 2 (CESM2) that is specifically designed to probe potent...

Extreme weather events have been demonstrated to be increasing in frequency and intensity across the globe and are anticipated to increase further with projected changes in climate. Solar climate intervention strategies, specifically stratospheric aerosol injections (SAI), have the potential to minimise some of the impacts of a changing climate whi...

The Atlantic meridional overturning circulation (AMOC) is an important global-scale circulation and changes in AMOC can induce significant regional and global climate impacts. Here we study the stability of AMOC and its influence on global ocean circulation and the surface climate though analyzing a set of sensitivity experiments using the Communit...

A correction to this paper has been published: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00382-021-05756-2

Convective storms can cause economic damage and harm to humans by producing flash floods, lightning and severe weather. While organized convection is well studied in the tropics and mid-latitudes, few studies have focused on the physics and climate change impacts of pan-Arctic convective systems. Using a convection-permitting model we showed in a p...

The tornado outbreak of 21-23 January 2017 caused 20 fatalities, more than 200 injuries, and over a billion dollars in damage in the southeast United States. The event occurred concurrently with a record-breaking warm Gulf of Mexico (GoM) basin. This article explores the influence that warm GoM sea surface temperatures (SSTs) had on the tornado out...

The moisture origins and associated physical mechanisms for tornadoes of various climatic regions of the United States were investigated. The NOAA Air Resources Laboratory HYSPLIT model and a moisture attribution algorithm were used in conjunction with statistical analyses to explore these relationships on a climate scale (1981-2017). It was found...

Tornadic thunderstorms rely on the availability of sufficient low level moisture, but the source regions of that moisture have not been explicitly demarcated. Using the NOAA Air Resources Laboratory HYSPLIT model and a Lagrangian-based diagnostic, moisture attribution was conducted to identify the moisture source regions of tornadic convection. Thi...

The El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) and Gulf of Mexico (GoM) influence winter tornado variability and significant tornado (EF2+) environments. Increases occur in the probability of a significant tornado environment from the southern Plains to Midwest during La Niña, and across the southern contiguous United States (CONUS) during El Niño. Winter...

Long-term trends suggest shifts toward earlier tornado season peaks, and yet fail to examine the role of year-to-year climate variability. Here, El Nino- Southern Oscillation phase is demonstrated to in uence annual cycle characteristics of United States tornadoes. Observations and favorable environments show substantial modi�cation of the peak spa...

Different features of the Gulf of Mexico (GOM), such as the Loop Current and warm-core rings, are found to influence monthly-to-seasonal severe weather occurrence in different regions of the United States (US). The warmer (cooler) the GOM sea-surface temperatures (SSTs), the more (less) hail and tornadoes occur during March-May over the southern US...