ESSC undergraduate student’s research leading to publication in peer-reviewed journal

ESSC undergraduate student LAU King Heng (who is also in the Science, Technology and Research Stream (STARS) of Faculty of Science) has recently published his research in the Journal of Theoretical and Applied Climatology. In collaboration with Ph.D. students and alumnus from the Graduate Division of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences (EASC), Lau King Heng compared how well tropical cyclones (or TCs, e.g. typhoons) are predicted by a conventional regional atmospheric model with a variable-resolution global model that can “zoom in” over storm locations to resolve relevant fine-scale physics. The study shows that the global forecasting model's performance is at least as good as the conventional regional model- this is significant since the former requires less information to predict the future.
From LAU King Heng: “…The experience was challenging yet rewarding. Not only have I gained first-hand experience in model simulations, but also improved my programming skills. With little prior knowledge in numerical modelling, I faced many obstacles. Fortunately, with the guidance of Professor Francis Tam, alumni from EASC and other collaborators, I was able to overcome them one by one. […] I am truly grateful for the opportunity to be part of the research project and look forward to learning more about numerical modelling and TCs.“

Reference:
Lui, Y.S., K.-S. Tse, C.-Y. Tam, K.H. Lau and J. Chen, 2020: Performance of western north Pacific tropical cyclone track and intensity evolution in MPAS-A and WRF simulations, Theor. Appl. Climatol.,https://doi.org/10.1007/s00704-020-03444-5