R. Saravanan: Bio

Name

Ramalingam Saravanan (usually shortened to R. Saravanan)

Address

Professor & Department Head
Department of Atmospheric Sciences
3150 Texas A&M University
College Station, TX 77843-3150 


Phone: (979) 845-0175
e-mail: sarava (at) tamu.edu

Education

• 1990 Ph. D. (Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences), Princeton University
• 1986 Master of Science (Physics), Indian Institute of Technology (Kanpur)

Professional Experience

• 2018-present, Head, Department of Atmospheric Sciences, Texas A&M University
• 2005-present, Professor of Atmospheric Sciences, Texas A&M University
• 1993-2005, Scientist I,II,III, National Center for Atmospheric Research, Boulder, Colorado
• 1990-1993, Postdoctoral Research Associate, Dept. of Applied Math. & Theoretical Physics, University of Cambridge, UK

Professional Service

• Member, NCAR Community Earth System Model (CESM) Scientific Steering Committee (2021-present)
• Member, Prediction and Research Moored Array in the Atlantic (PIRATA) Science Steering Committee (2010-2018)
• Member, American Meteorological Society Committee on Climate Variability and Change (2014-2017)
• Member, NRC Committee on the Assessment of Intraseasonal to Interannual Climate Prediction and Predictability (2009)
• Co-organizer, TAMU Symposium on Climate, Statistics, and Satellites (2009)
• Editor, Journal of Climate (2007-2010)
• Co-chair, Program Committee for the 14th AMS Conference on Atmospheric and Oceanic Fluid Dynamics, San Antonio, Texas (2003)
• Co-convener, NCAR/ASP Colloquium on the Dynamics of Decadal-to-Centennial Climate Variability (2000)
• Member, American Meteorological Society Committee on Atmospheric and Oceanic Fluid Dynamics (2000-2003)
• Member, NASA Seasonal-to-Interannual Predictability (NSIPP) Science Team (2000-2005)
• Member, U.S. CLIVAR Pacific Sector Implementation Panel (1999-2000)

Honors and awards

• 2023 American Meteorological Society Louis J. Battan Author's Award for The Climate Demon: Past, Present, and Future of Climate Prediction, "a thoughtful and approachable guide to the history, philosophy, and process of climate modeling – which informs an important discussion of science's role in policymaking."

• 2022 Dean's Distinguished Achievement Award for Public Engagement, College of Geosciences, Texas A&M University

• 2015 Distinguished Research Award, College of Geosciences, Texas A&M University

Courses taught

• ATMO 201: Introduction to Atmospheric Science
• ATMO 321: Computer Applications in Atmospheric Science
• ATMO 324: Physical and Regional Climatology
• ATMO 459: Tropical Meteorology
• ATMO 604: General Circulation and Climate
• ATMO 611: Atmospheric Dynamics II
• GEOS 210: Climate Change

Outreach

• Metamodel.blog: A blog about the bout the language, science, and philosophy of climate & other models

• Is the weather actually becoming more extreme? TED-Ed Lesson

Book

• Saravanan, R., 2021: The Climate Demon: Past, Present, and Future of Climate Prediction, Cambridge University Press

Book Chapters

• Saravanan, R., and P. Chang, 2018: Midlatitude Meso-scale Ocean-Atmosphere Interaction and Its Relevance to S2S Prediction. In: The Gap between Weather and Climate Forecasting: Sub-Seasonal to Seasonal Prediction, Elsevier, Andrew W. Robertson and Frederic Vitart, ed., doi:10.1016/B978-0-12-811714-9.00009-7

• Saravanan, R., 2008: Seasonal-to-decadal prediction using climate models: successes and challenges. In: Large-Scale Disasters: Prediction, Control and Mitigation, Cambridge University Press, Mohamed Gad-El-Hak, ed., 318-328pp. doi: 10.1017/CBO9780511535963.016

• Saravanan, R. and P. Chang, 2004: Thermodynamic coupling and predictability of tropical sea surface temperature. In: Earth's Climate: The Ocean-Atmosphere Interaction, Geophysical Monograph 147, American Geophysical Union, Washington, DC. C. Wang, S-P. Xie, J.A. Carton, eds. 171-180pp.

Selected Papers

• Verma, T., R. Saravanan, P. Chang, and S. Mahajan, 2019: Tropical Pacific ocean dynamical response to short-term sulfate aerosol forcing, Journal of Climate, doi:10.1175/JCLI-D-19-0050.1

• Yang, J., M. Jun, C. Schumacher, and R. Saravanan, 2019: Predictive statistical representations of observed and simulated rainfall using generalized linear models. Journal of Climate, doi:10.1175/JCLI-D-18-0527.1

• Patricola, C.M., R. Saravanan, P. Chang, 2018: The response of Atlantic tropical cyclones to suppression of African easterly waves, Geophysical Research Letters, 45, 471-479. doi:10.1002/2017GL076081

• Patricola, C.M., P. Chang, R. Saravanan, 2016: Degree of simulated suppression of Atlantic tropical cyclones modulated by flavour of El Niño, Nature Geoscience, 9, 155-160. doi:10.1038/ngeo2624

• Ma, X., P. Chang, R. Saravanan, R. Montuoro, J.-S. Hsieh, D. Wu, X. Lin, L. Wu, Z. Jing, 2015: Distant influence of Kuroshio eddies on North Pacific weather patterns? Scientific Reports, 5, 17785. doi:10.1038/srep17785

• Wang, Y., R. Zhang, and R. Saravanan, 2014: Asian pollution climatically modulates mid-latitude cyclones following hierarchical modelling and observational analysis. Nature Communications, 5, 3098. doi:10.1038/ncomms4098

• Balaguru, K., P. Chang, R. Saravanan, and L. R. Leung, 2012: Ocean barrier layers' effect on tropical cyclone intensification. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 109, 14343-14347, doi:10.1073/pnas.1201364109

• Mahajan, S., R. Saravanan, and P. Chang, 2010: Free and Forced Variability of the Tropical Atlantic Ocean: Role of the Wind-Evaporation-Sea Surface Temperature (WES) Feedback. Journal of Climate, 23, 5958-5977.

• Deser, C., A. Capotondi, R. Saravanan, and A. Phillips, 2006: Tropical Pacific and Atlantic climate variability in CCSM3. Journal of Climate, 19, 2451-2481.

• Magnusdottir, G., C. Deser, and R. Saravanan, 2004: The effects of North Atlantic SST and sea-ice anomalies on the winter circulation in CCM3: Part I: Main features and storm-track characteristics of the response. Journal of Climate, 17, 857-876. doi

• Giannini, A., R. Saravanan, and P. Chang, 2003: Oceanic forcing of Sahel rainfall on interannual to interdecadal time scales. Science, 302, 1027-1030, doi:10.1126/science.1089357

• Saravanan, R., G. Danabasoglu, S. C. Doney, and J. C. McWilliams, 2000: Decadal variability and predictability in the midlatitude ocean–atmosphere system. Journal of Climate, 13, 1073–1097.

• Polvani, L. M., and R. Saravanan, 2000: The three-dimensional structure of breaking Rossby waves in the polar wintertime stratosphere. Journal of the Atmospheric Sciences, 57, 3663–3685

• Saravanan, R., 1998: Atmospheric low frequency variability and its relationship to midlatitude SST variability: Studies using the NCAR Climate System Model. Journal of Climate, 11, 1386–1404.

• Saravanan, R., and J. C. McWilliams, 1998: Advective ocean–atmosphere interaction: an analytical stochastic model with implications for decadal variability. Journal of Climate, 11, 165–188. doi

• Saravanan, R., and J. C. McWilliams, 1997: Stochasticity and spatial resonance in interdecadal climate fluctuations. Journal of Climate, 10, 2299–2320.

• Saravanan, R., and J. C. McWilliams, 1995: Multiple equilibria, natural variability, and climate transitions in an idealized ocean–atmosphere model. Journal of Climate, 8, 2296–2323.

• Saravanan, R., 1993: Equatorial superrotation and the maintenance of general circulation in two–level models. Journal of the Atmospheric Sciences, 50, 1211–1227. doi

• Saravanan, R., 1990: A multi–wave model of the quasi–biennial oscillation. Journal of the Atmospheric Sciences, 47, 2465–2474

• Saravanan, R., J. K. Bhattacharjee, K. Banerjee, and O. Narayan, 1985: Chaos in a periodically–forced Lorenz system. Physical Review A31, 520–522.

A more complete list of publications is available in my ResearcherID profile or Google Scholar