Laura Zamboni

My main research interest is the understanding of rainfall variability from seasonal to longer time scale. I am also interested in improving the characterization of rainfall variability and extreme weather events target to "real life applications" as for example energy and agricultural demands, and human health. The means to achieve such understanding include observational datasets as well as climate models, including the investigation of single processes affecting the simulated climate.

Currently, I am working on the uncertainty quantification of simulated rainfall due to uncertainties in the representation physical processes governing cloud formation and evolution. These physical processes occur at spatial and temporal scales not resolved by general circulation atmospheric models (AGCMs) and are a major source of uncertainty in explorations of natural climate variability, seasonal predictions and climate change assessments.

I am at present analyzing a large ensemble of present-day AMIP-type perturbed physics experiments I generated using the Geophysical Fluid Dynamic Laboratory (GFDL) High Resolution Atmospheric Model (HiRAM) on the Argonne Leadership Computational Facility. Simulations are performed over the entire globe at 100 Km resolution, which is outstandingly high for this type of studies.

The project is conducted in collaboration with R. Jacob (ANL), R. V. Kotamarthi (ANL) and T. Williams (ANL), Maria Cadeddu (ANL), I. Held (GFDL), M. Zhao (GFDL), D. Neelin, and J. McWilliams (UCLA).

Two secondary projects focus on South American climate: The first project's goal is to investigate the interannual and inter-decadal variability of precipitation in South America and their relationship to ENSO flavors. The analysis is based on examination of atmospheric and coupled general circulation models, as well as observations. The second project's goal is to characterize heat waves in South America and their link to the general circulation.

Education

• B.S. in Physics from the University of Bologna, Italy.

• M.S. in Physics from the University of Bologna, Italy.

• Ph.D. in Environmental Fluid Mechanics from the University of Trieste, Italy, jointly with the Abdus Salam, International Centre for Theoretical Physics Trieste (ICTP), Italy, and UCLA, CA.

Awards

• 2006-2009. Italian Graduate Fellowship

• 2010. Argonne National Laboratory Computational Postdoctoral Fellowship

• 2011. US Department of Energy Advanced Scientific Computing Research Leadership Computing Challenge (ALCC) award. The allocation represents the 2nd largest for 2011 (40 million hours) and the first ever in which the project is lead by a postdoctoral appointee.

Publications

• Zamboni L., F. Kucharski, M. Barreiro and A. Cherchi: Dynamics of the Impact of ENSO Flavors on Precipitation over La Plata Basin. In preparation. DRAFT

• Zamboni L., A. Cherchi, and A. F. Carril: Characterization of Heat Waves: An Example for La Plata Basin. In preparation. DRAFT

• Cavalcanti I.F.A., A. Carril, O. Penalba, A.M. Grimm, C. Menéndez, F. Robledo, J. Rivera, L.M. Betolli, V. Pántano, P. Zaninelli, E. Sanches, M. Dominguez, A. Cherchi, L. Zamboni: Precipitation extremes over La Plata Basin- observations and climate simulations. In preparation.

• Carril, A. F., Cherchi, C. Menéndez, P. Zaninelli and L. Zamboni: Links between Tropical Pacific SSTs Anomalies and Temperature Extremes over South America. In preparation.

• Carril, A. F., and co-authors: Processes and future evolution of extreme climate events in La Plata Basin. In preparation

• Cherchi A., A. F. Carril, C. Menéndez and L. Zamboni: La Plata Basin precipitation variability in spring: Role of remote SST forcing as simulated by GCM experiments. Accepted by Climate Dynamics. PDF

• Zamboni L., F. Kucharski and C.R. Mechoso: Seasonal variations of the links between the interannual variability of South America and the South Pacific. Climate Dynamics, 38, Issue 9, pp. 2115-2129. PDF

• Zamboni L., C.R. Mechoso and F. Kucharski: Seasonal Variability of Precipitation over South Eastern South America: its Relationship with Upper Level Circulation as Physical Base for Predictions. Journal of Climate, 23, Issue 12, pp. 3300-3315. PDF