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Geosciences Department
OSAMU MIYAWAKI

Osamu Miyawaki

Assistant Professor of Geosciences
F.W. Olin Center 316
(518) 388-8781
miyawako@union.edu
Pronouns
He/Him/His
Geosciences

Areas of expertise

Global climate dynamics, theory of climate, atmospheric convection, land-atmosphere interactions

Research interests

My research expertise is in climate dynamics. I am interested in understanding how Earth’s climate has changed in the past and is projected to change in the future. A common theme of my research is seeking simple explanations for climate change projected by state-of-the-art models. Some specific questions that motivate my research include,
- What physical mechanisms control the spatial and horizontal structure of atmospheric warming?
- How can we reduce the model spread in projected timing of sea-ice loss?
- Why are hot extremes projected to get hotter in summertime than in other seasons?


To answer these questions, I:
- evaluate the robustness of the phenomenon in climate models of varying complexity
- test hypotheses by configuring mechanism-denial experiments in idealized climate models, and
- explore the sensitivity of the phenomenon in a large parameter space using simple theory.

Teaching interests

GEO 115: Intro to the Atmosphere

GEO 302: Modeling the Earth

Publications

Shaw, T. A. and O. Miyawaki, 2024. Fast upper-level jet stream winds get faster under climate change. Nature Climate Change. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41558-023-01884-1.

Miyawaki, O., T. A. Shaw, and M. F. Jansen, 2023. The emergence of a new wintertime Arctic energy balance regime. Environmental Research: Climate, 3(2), https://doi.org/10.1088/2752-5295/aced63.

Shaw, T. A., Miyawaki, O., and A. Donohoe, 2023. Stormier Southern Hemisphere induced by topography and ocean circulation. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 119(15), e2123512119. https://www.pnas.org/doi/abs/10.1073/pnas.2123512119

Miyawaki, O., T. A. Shaw, and M. F. Jansen, 2022. Quantifying energy balance regimes in the modern climate, their link to lapse rate regimes, and their response to warming. Journal of Climate, 35(3), 1045-1061. https://journals.ametsoc.org/view/journals/clim/35/3/JCLI-D-21-0440.1.xml

Miyawaki, O., Z. Tan, T. A. Shaw, and M. F. Jansen, 2020. Quantifying Key Mechanisms That Contribute to the Deviation of the Tropical Warming Profile From a Moist Adiabat. Geophysical Research Letters, 47, e2020GL089136. https://doi.org/10.1029/2020GL089136.

Areas of interest

I do theory and numerical work on a global scale!

Academic credentials

B.S., University of Illinois; Ph.D., University of Chicago