Julia Shates just finished her junior year at the University of California at
Irvine where she is pursuing a double major in earth system science and
spanish. Her research interests are climate modeling, atmospheric dynamics,
climate oscillations/modes and global atmospheric energy transport. She teamed
up with Professor Elizabeth Barnes this summer to study one of those interests:
atmospheric oscillations. 
The Baroclinic Annular Mode (BAM), an unexpected dynamical variability in the
extratropical atmosphere, comes from recent work performed by Professor
Barnes and Professor Dave Thompson. Julia took this cutting edge research and
attempted to find the smallest scale at which the BAM signal appears. She also
tried to find if different geographic regions of the Southern Hemisphere
contribute more than others to the BAM.
Julia's research poster, Exploration of Atmospheric Oscillations with a hierarchy of models: A focus on scale and geographic locationa, explores this new and exciting work. Julia calls Los Angeles, California, her hometown so hanging out in Colorado was a fun change. Her hobbies include ultimate frisbee, reading, hiking and kayaking. |