Dr. Noboru Nakamura
Professor of Geophysical Sciences, University of Chicago 
Research Focus: Atmospheric and environmental fluid dynamics

There will be a reception with food and refreshments at 4:30 pm, following the seminar in Snee 2146 for faculty, staff, and students to meet Dr. Nakamura.

Title: Large wave events in the extratropical atmosphere

Large-scale eddies and their interaction with the mean flow is a hallmark of atmospheric circulation in the Earth's midlatitudes.  In this talk I will present a simple theory and observational support on how this interaction gives rise to disruptions of the jet stream that cause weather anomalies such as atmospheric blocking and stratospheric sudden warmings. In essence, these large wave events are a threshold behavior of finite-amplitude Rossby waves. Understanding the threshold condition will likely help us better constrain the effect of climate change on the frequency of these events.