Dr Ju Liang

I am a Postdoctoral Research Associate in the Exeter Climate Systems group of the College of Engineering, Mathematics and Physical Sciences. My research at Exeter focuses on the dynamics of extreme precipitation, weather systems and their responses to external climate forcing (including greenhouse gases and stratospheric aerosols) based on different types of climate simulations.

Research Interests:

1) High-resolution regional climate modelling;

2) Hydrological responses to regional climate change;

3) High-impact weather systems and climate change.

My research on this topic focuses on various extreme synoptic processes in different regions, including Borneo Vortices (Western Maritime Continent), Atmospheric Rivers (East Asia and Western North America) and Tropical Cyclones (Western North Pacific). These studies aim to support better management of regional risks of extreme events/ disasters to promote climate change adaptation globally.

(Red Lines: Atmospheric River Axis; Shaded: Atmospheric River Plume; Blue Stippling: AR-related Heavy Rainfall - Daily Precip. > 35 mm/day)

• Atmospheric River Identification Algorithm for the Asia monsoon region (ARIA-Asia) - ARTMIP Style

Animated images above show the atmospheric river features in East Asia detected in the ERA5 reanalysis datasets during the 1998 China flood event (from 17/06/1998 to 22/06/1998) and from 21/07/2015 to 26/07/2015 using ARIA-Asia 1.5, a Python-based algorithm developed since 2018 for impact studies of atmospheric rivers in the Asian monsoon region based on gridded meteorological datasets and climate simulation outputs.

Description of ARIA-Asia 1.0: Climatology of atmospheric rivers in the Asian monsoon region - Liang - 2021 - International Journal of Climatology - Wiley Online Library

For more information, please contact J.Liang@exeter.ac.uk

Current Projects (NERC-funded):

• IMpacts of PRecipitation from Extreme StormS - Malaysia (IMPRESS – Malaysia)
• Soot Aerodynamic Size Selection for Optical properties (SASSO)

Key Publications:

• Liang J (?), Tan ML, Hawcroft M, Catto JL, Hodges KI, Haywood JM, 2021. Monsoonal precipitation over Peninsular Malaysia in the CMIP6 HighResMIP experiments: The role of model resolution. Climate Dynamics. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00382-021-06033-y.
• Liang J (?), Catto JL, Hawcroft M, Hodges KI, Tan ML, Haywood JM, 2021. Climatology of Borneo Vortices in the HadGEM3-GC31 general circulation model. Journal of Climate. 34(9): 3401–3419.
• Liang J, Yong Y (?), 2021. Climatology of atmospheric rivers in the Asian monsoon region. International Journal of Climatology. 41, E801–E818.
• Liang J (?), Sushama L, 2019. Freezing rain events related to atmospheric rivers and associated mechanisms for western North America. Geophysical Research Letters. 46, 10541–10550.
• Liang J (?), Tang Y. 2017. Climatology of meteorological factors of haze events over North China and its potential responses to QBO. Journal of Meteorological. Research. 31(5): 852-864.
• Liang J (?), Wang C, Hodges KI. 2017. Evaluation of tropical cyclones over the South China Sea simulated by the 12-km MetUM regional climate model. Quarterly Journal of the Royal Meteorological Society. 143 (704): 1641-1656.