Biography
Research Interests
Prof. Shaw’s research focuses on the physics of the atmosphere and climate system past, present and future. She seeks to understand the underlying mechanisms controlling the response to climate changes so that we can have greater confidence in future projections. Her approach combines theory (primarily conservation laws), numerical modeling across a hierarchy of complexity and observational data analysis. Using this approach Prof. Shaw has shown moist thermodynamics can explain why climate zones shift latitudinally in response to anthropogenic emissions and surface albedo changes can explain why the atmospheric circulation weakens in response to Arctic sea ice loss.
Selected Publications
Kang, J., T. A. Shaw and L. Sun, 2023: Arctic Sea Ice Loss Weakens Northern Hemisphere Summertime Storminess but Not Until the Late 21st Century, Geophys. Res. Lett., 10.1029/2022GL102301.
Shaw, T. A., O. Miyawaki, O., and A. Donohoe, 2022: Stormier Southern Hemisphere induced by topography and ocean circulation, Proc. Nat. Acad. Sci., 10.1073/pnas.2123512119. Press coverage: Washington Post, WBEZ, UChicago News, Carbon Brief Guest Post
Miyawaki, O., T. A. Shaw and M. F. Jansen, 2021: Quantifying energy balance regimes in the modern climate, their link to lapse rate regimes, and their response to warming, J. Climate, 10.1175/JCLI-D-21-0440.1.
Shaw, T. A. and R. J. Graham, 2020: Hydrological cycle changes explain weak Snowball Earth storm track despite increased surface baroclinicity, Geophys. Res. Lett., 10.1029/2020GL089866.
Tan, Z. and T. A. Shaw, 2020: Quantifying the impact of wind and surface humidity induced surface heat exchange on the circulation shift in response to increased CO2, Geophys. Res. Lett., 10.1029/2020GL088053.
Barpanda, P. and T. A. Shaw, 2020: Surface fluxes modulate the seasonality of zonal-mean storm tracks, J. Atmos. Sci., 10.1175/JAS-D-19-0139.1.
A full list of publications can be found here.
Honors