Physical Sciences Division

Dr. Sun pioneered the study of the role of ENSO events in the long-term heat balance of the tropical Pacific, delineated the relationship between the amplitude of ENSO and the meridional differential heating, discovered the rectification effect of ENSO into the mean climate as a mechanism for climate changes on decadal and longer time-scales, and advanced the understanding of the role of ocean-atmosphere coupling in general and El Nino events in particular in regulating the tropical maximum Sea Surface Temperature. He is currently developing a theory that can predict the response of El Nino events to the rise of CO2 and other man-made greeenghouse gases in the atmosphere.

Dr. Sun's work involves evaluating the fidelity of the state-of-the-art models to Nature and collaborating with modellers at the National Center for Atmospheric Research and NOAA's Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory to remove model deficiencies--those deficiencies in clouds, water vapor, and rainfall in particular. Dr. Sun is also engaged in an collaborative effort with climate forecasters at the National Center For Enviornemntal Predicitons (NCEP) to improve climate forecasts--the forecasts of El Nino in particular-- through the NCEP climate forecast system. (For a more complete description of the line of work by Dr. Sun and his collaborators, click here).

Dr. Sun received his Ph.D. in Meteorology from MIT and had worked in the Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory of Princeton University and the Global and Climate Dynamics Division of National Center for Atmospheric Research before joining CIRES. He has taught both undergraduate and graduate classes in climate change sciences in University of Colorado at Boulder. In collaborations with colleagues, he has produced a monograph "Climate Dynamics: Why Does Climate Vary?" published by American Geophysical Union. Dr.Sun also concerns the public education about climate change and has talked to the media frequently on this subject. (For the most recent interview with Collin Schults of American Geophysical Uninon, click here).