2025 Internship Project Overview

Black carbon (BC) exerts a strong influence on the hydrological cycle by perturbing atmospheric circulation. Yet the pathways through which BC alters precipitation remain poorly understood. Using GFDL-AM2.5 experiments, we disentangle how radiative anomalies from BC reshape static stability, humidity and circulation compared to sulfate aerosols and CO2 doubling. We find that BC-induced shortwave heating enhances upper-tropospheric stability and reduces clear-sky radiative cooling, which drives large-scale circulation changes. These circulation adjustments redistribute humidity, weakening ascent and moistening patterns that normally support precipitation while simultaneously reducing anvil cloud fraction. Our results show that precipitation changes under absorbing aerosols emerge primarily from circulation-driven humidity adjustments rather than direct thermodynamic scaling. This highlights the dominant role of circulation in mediating the hydrological impacts of BC and underscores the need to account for its distinct dynamical fingerprint when evaluating aerosol–climate interactions.

ORGANIZATION/RESEARCH GROUP

The Vecchi Research Group, Department of Geosciences, Princeton University

LOCATION

Princeton, New Jersey

 

Interns

Skyler Chan ’28
Major: Electrical and Computer Engineering
"What I enjoyed most was turning intuition into simulation by writing code and digging through data. The experience strengthened my technical skills and deepened my curiosity about climate dynamics. It confirmed my interest in developing quantitative tools to understand environmental risks, and encouraged me to connect climate modeling with real-world questions of policy and sustainability."

Click to view the end-of-project presentation

 

Gabriel Vecchi
Knox Taylor Professor of Geosciences, Professor in the High Meadows Environmental Institute

Mentors

  • Haozhe He, Postdoctoral Research Associate, High Meadows Environmental Institute