Bowen FanGraduate Student

Research Focus:

Planetary Climate

Email:

bowen27@uchicago.edu

Biography: I received a liberal education at Yuanpei College and earned a B.S. in Physics from Peking University. In 2019, I began my Ph.D. in Geophysical Sciences at the University of Chicago.

Research Interests:  My research interests lie in the physics of planetary climates. My Ph.D. thesis explores the theory and modeling of drier climates (early Mars, Titan) and hotter climates (early Venus, early Earth). I have also contributed to studies on extreme climates, including snowball Earth and lava exoplanets.

Publications:

B. Fan and E. S. Kite (in prep): The Fade of Eden: Nonlinear Climate Response to Volatile Loss and the Edge of Habitability

B. Fan, Z. Tan, and T. A. Shaw (in prep): Impact of Surface Drying on Storm Tracks.

K. Loftus, Y. Luo, B. Fan, E. S. Kite (2024): Extreme Weather Variability on Hot Rocky Exoplanet 55 Cancri e Explained by Magma Temperature-Cloud Feedback, arXiv

B. Fan, D. Yang, and D. S. Abbot (2024): Climate Bistability at the Inner Edge of the Habitable Zone due to Runaway Greenhouse and Cloud Feedbacks, The Astrophysical Journal Letters

G. Chaverot, A. Zorzi, X. Ding, J. Itcovitz, B. Fan, S. Bhatnagar, A. Ji, R. J. Graham and T. Mittal (2024): Resilience of Snowball Earth to Stochastic Events, Geophysical Research Letters

B. Fan, M. F. Jansen, M. A. Mischna, and E. S. Kite, (2023): Why Are Mountaintops Cold? The Transition of Surface Lapse Rate on Dry Planets, Geophysical Research Letters

E. S. Kite, M. A. Mischna, B. Fan, A. M. Morgan, S. A. Wilson, and M. I. Richardson, (2022): Changing Spatial Distribution of Water Flow Charts Major Change in Mars’s Greenhouse Effect, Science Advances

B. Fan, Z. Tan, T. A. Shaw, and E. S. Kite, (2021): Reducing Surface Wetness Leads to Tropical Hydrological Cycle Regime Transition, Geophysical Research Letters

J. Nie and B. Fan, (2019): Roles of Dynamic Forcings and Diabatic Heating in Summer Extreme Precipitation in East China and the Southeastern United States, Journal of Climate

Selected Conference Presentations: 

B. Fan, Z. Tan, T. A. Shaw, (2024): Impact of surface drying on large-scale climate dynamics, AOFD 2024

B. Fan and D. S. Abbot, (2023): Climate bifurcation caused by atmospheric shortwave absorption and cloud reflection at the inner edge of the Habitable Zone, AGU Fall Meeting 2023

B. Fan, N. Habib, F. Spaulding-Astudillo, E. S. Kite and C. Li, (2022): Gone with the rock wind: A boundary layer model of close-in, rocky exoplanets with condensable-rich atmospheres, AGU Fall Meeting 2022

B. Fan, E. J. Lee, and E. S. Kite, (2021): Squeeze the atmosphere into magma: sub-Neptune mass-radius relation revised by atmosphere-magma interactions, AGU Fall Meeting 2021

B. Fan and E. S. Kite, (2018): Upper Limit on a Paleo-Equatorial Ridge from a Tidally-Disrupted Moon of Mars, LPSC 2018

Outreach activity:

I served as a member of the organizing committee for Rossbypalooza 2022.

Rossbypalooza is an international summer school designed for students and postdocs across the fields of atmospheric, oceanic, and planetary sciences. The summer school is organized by graduate students, who are responsible for deciding the theme for the year, applying for funding, inviting faculty, advertising the event, selecting attendees, and managing logistics.

The event received very positive feedback, with 95% of students and 100% of faculty stating, “I would recommend Rossbypalooza to my peers, colleagues, and department.”