Bowen FanGraduate Student

Research Focus:

Planetary Climate

Email:

bowen27@uchicago.edu

Biography: I got a liberal education at Yuanpei College and received a B.S. in physics from Peking University. In 2019, I came to the University of Chicago for Ph.D. in geophysical sciences. 

Research Interests:  I use mathematical and numerical methods to explain the physics of planetary climates. I am interested in the climate of early Mars, Titan, and rocky exoplanets. 

Publications:

B. Fan and D. S. Abbot (in prep): A lower-order model of climate bifurcation for hot rocky planets.

G. Chaverot, A. Zorzi, X. Ding, J. Itcovitz, B. Fan, S. Bhatnagar, A. Ji, R. J. Graham and T. Mittal (in prep): Resilience of snowball Earth to stochastic events.

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, 50(23), e2023GL106683

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, 8(21), eabo5894

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, 48(8), e2020GL090746 

Nie, J. 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, 32, 5815-5831 

Selected Conference Presentations: 

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, M. F. Jansen, M. A. Mischna, and E. S. Kite, (2022): Why are Mountaintops Cold? — The Decorrelation of Surface Temperature and Topography Due to the Decline of the Greenhouse Effect on Early Mars, LPSC 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, Z. Tan, T. A. Shaw, and E. S. Kite, (2020): Reducing surface wetness leads to tropical hydrological cycle regime transition, AGU Fall Meeting 2020 

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 one of the organizing committee members of Rossbypalooza 2022.

Rossbypalooza is an international summer school for students/postdocs from a broad field of atmospheric, oceanic, and planetary sciences. The summer school is organized by graduate students, who are in charge of deciding the theme of the year, funding application, faculty invitation, advertising, attendee selection, and other logistic works. The summer school received very positive feedback, with 95% students and 100% faculty voting: “I would recommend Rossbypalooza to my peers/colleagues and department”.