Tess Jacobson ’19
Physics
Impact of Climate on North Atlantic Tropical-Cyclone Tracks
I researched the ways tropical-cyclone tracks change with different climate-warming models. I looked primarily at North Atlantic tropical cyclones, as well as some South Indian Ocean cyclones. Using Python, I separated all North Atlantic tropical cyclones from 1980- 2007 into six distinct clusters, based on their locations and tracks. Then, by doing the same clustering for hurricane tracks from climate models with warming signals, I was able to see the way each cluster behaved with the different climate models. I found that the basin-wide reduction of storms predicted by climate models was mostly accounted for by storms in the subtropics — North Atlantic storm frequency doesn’t decrease everywhere with warming. During this project, I learned to program in Python and work with large datasets. I also attended a weekly reading group on climate in the Program in Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences, and learned quite a lot about the field of oceanography. I plan on pursuing a Ph.D., so the knowledge and skills that I gained during the summer will help me better navigate academia and my future research.
2017
Climate and Oceans
Department of Geosciences, Princeton University
Gabriel Vecchi, Professor of Geosciences and the Princeton Environmental Institute