9508085 Evans Under this CAREER award, Dr. Evans will examine the relationship between tropical convection and the large-scale circulation. It has long been hypothesized that the transports of heat, moisture and momentum from the tropics to the extratropics, accomplished by tropical convection, maintain the general circulation. Dr. Evans further suggests that the degree to which the convection is organized is determined by what is required to maintain the general circulation, with highly organized systems playing a large, and necessary, role in maintaining the Earth's energy balance. Using satellite-based observations, Dr. Evans will classify various types of tropical convective systems ranging from short-lived, disorganized convection to highly organized tropical cyclones and mesoscale convective complexes, and then assess their impact on the general circulation by analyzing the momentum and energy fluxes. The analyses will employ the gridded fields produced by the European Centre for Medium Range Forecasting for a recent field experiment in the tropical Pacific. Dr. Evans' educational program will focus on the recruitment and retention of talented women at the graduate and undergraduate level, primarily through her work with the Women in Science and Engineering Institute at Penn State. She also will develop a new course on climate modeling which will include special emphasis on current controversial topics related to climate systems study and modeling. ***
