Welcome!

The Precipitation and Climate Research Group in Atmospheric Sciences (within the Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences) at Cornell University focuses on precipitation and its response to climate variability and change. This includes extreme precipitation and its change, in the context of the distribution of precipitation in intensity, space, and time. We use observations, a hierarchy of models, and theory to investigate fundamental questions including:

• What role does precipitation play in the flow of energy through the climate system, and what can we learn about precipitation and its change from this?
• How have extreme precipitation events changed in the past, how will change in the future, and what processes drive these changes?
• How accurately do models simulate the hydrologic cycle, and how can we improve their accuracy?
• What are the causes and consequences of changes in the hydrologic cycle for circulation of the atmosphere and ocean, climate sensitivity, and society?