Atmospheric Physics Group
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About
We use data analysis and advanced computer models to study the dynamics of atmospheres. There are two main teams, one focused on Earth’s middle and upper atmosphere and one focused on planetary atmospheres, including Mars and Jupiter.
Key Research Areas
- Coupling processes from the Earth to space
- Atmospheric tides in the middle and upper atmosphere
- Planetary Atmospheres
- Atmospheric Dynamics
Current Projects
- Temporal and spatial variations of atmospheric tides in the middle and upper atmosphere
- Modeling of short term atmospheric tidal variations with statistical methods
- Effects of active moist convection on Jupiter’s long-lived vortices
- EPIC Atmospheric Model development
Recent Publications
- Vitharana, A., Zhu, X., Du, J., Oberheide, J., & Ward, W. E. (2019). Statistical modeling of tidal weather in the mesosphere and lower thermosphere. Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres, 124, 9011–9027. https://doi.org/10.1029/2019JD030573
- Ashan Vitharana, Jian Du, Xuwen Zhu, Jens Oberheide, William E. Ward, Numerical Prediction of the Migrating Diurnal Tide Total Variability in the Mesosphere and Lower Thermosphere, Journal of Geophysical Research: Space Physics, 10.1029/2021JA029588, 126, 11, (2021).
- Read P, Dowling T, 2025, Barotropic instability, in Encycl. of Atmos. Sci., 3rd Ed., Robinson WA, Yang P, Eds., Academic Press.
- Deguchi K, Hirota M, Dowling T, 2024, A sufficient condition for inviscid shear instability: hurdle theorem and its application to alternating jets, J. Fluid Mech., 997, A25, doi:10.1017/jfm.2024.728
- Keaveney CW, Lackmann GM, Dowling TE, 2024, Effect of transient vortex interactions on the size and strength of Jupiter’s Great Red Spot, Icarus 420, 116196, doi: 10.1016/j.icarus.2024.116196.
- Nasr CR, Bradley ME, Lewis SR, Hollingsworth JL, Dowling TE, 2022, Mach and Froude numbers on Mars, Planet. Sci. J. 3, 165.
Team
Jian Du-Caines, Associate Professor
jian.du@louisville.edu
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